


How To: Dealing with Ghosts and Other Unearthly Beings

by temporarytattoo



Category: Danny Phantom, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, Danny Fenton Needs A Hug, Danny Fenton is a Little Shit, Everyone Is Gay, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is a Good Bro, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Tony Stark is Good With Kids, so is Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 02:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29342811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/temporarytattoo/pseuds/temporarytattoo
Summary: "These beings can not be trusted. They are cruel and tricksters. These are the nominations from Hel. Do not attempt to fight you will lose."The white haired teenager cocked his head to the side. If it wasn't more the glowing green eyes and stark white hair and the fact that he was floating in front of a one hundred story building, then Tony Stark would have laughed."Alright, time for me to close his tabs, see ya next year...or not."ORDanny Fenton definitely had the worst luck. His entire family dead and now he's stuck with a crazed-up fruitloop.Tony Stark who also has the worst luck is stuck with a mess after the civil war. The man that killed his parents is now being accepted into the Avengers as well as a certain God's trickster brother that tried to eradicate Earth of all humans. Not to mention the looming threat of some all-powerful titan that had his eyes set on Earth next.Oh yeah, everything was going to be great.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Peter Parker
Comments: 78
Kudos: 301





	1. What in Hel?

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first crossover that I've attempted so there's that. I hope some people like DP and Marvel mashed together lol.

Beige stone walls crumpled, the debris falling unceremoniously from the wall to the floor. They groaned from the constant strain forced upon them. Beaten up rusted blue lockers quaked from some unseen force. The bell screeched in the background. From the main hall an unearthly orange glow emitted from a large broken window.

In the center of the destruction, a raven haired boy kneeled, head tucked in between his knees, his knuckles white from the strength at which he gripped his hair. He muttered meaningless assurances under his breath quietly. 

Haunting cired echoed throughout the small corridor. Pain and agony coming in waves. The boy cried along with them breathlessly. His back heaving in sync with the cires. 

“I’m sorry!” He cried, “I’m sorry!”

Alas, his pleas were to no use. If anything, the cries became louder, more taunting. The boy whimpered while pulling his body closer together.

“Please! I-I’m so sorry!”

The echoing cries stopped, the only sound now coming from the boys whimpers. He clawed at his ears, the sound of his own cries making his stomach roll.

The ground underneath him shook. He abruptly fell backward eyes now lifelessly staring up at the cream ceiling. At first, the deep growl was soft coming from behind him, but it steadily grew louder to the point where the boy brought his hands back up to his ears clenching his eyes shut.

“Stupid boy,” The voice hissed, “You’re all alone now.”

The familiarity of the voice did not go past the boy. He knew exactly who was speaking to him. Nausea took over, sending the boy spiraling downwards into an empty black abyss. Hot air burned at his skin, blisters instantly forming.

“Inevitably, you will become me.”

* * *

Darkness shrouded him. Arms wildly flailing against the bonds holding him down. He was trapped. His breathing was restricted from the dark against him. He heaved needing air. He needed it now. Gasping, he used all the strength he had and an arm broke free throwing off the restraint. It successfully tumbled to the ground along with him. 

Danny yelped as he landed on the cool mahogany floor underneath. The sudden impact brought him back to reality. He heaved breath after breath. His heart raced. Leaning his head against the bedframe he continued to breathe. Slowly, yet surely calming down his racing heartbeat. It had felt like his heart was trying to implode from his chest. 

It was the same thing every night. Constant nightmares holding him hostage leaving him breathless, sweaty, and stomach-churning every morning he woke up to his new life. 

The door to the room opened slowly revealing Vlad Masters. Danny turned away from the man not wanting to look at him any longer than he had already. It was pathetic, sometimes he debated about running away and just living on the streets somewhere far away from here. Maybe he could still try his luck in the ghost zone. If he was lucky, then Clockwork might feel the tiniest bit of guilt for him and let him crash there.

“Daniel, glad to see you awake are your things packed for this weekend?”

The boy scoffed under his breath. Of course, that was impossible. Vlad had finally gotten what he wanted and he was not about to let Danny slip from his grasp this easily. It would be futile.

“I still don’t see why you need me to go with you.” He said instead pushing his other thoughts to the side.

Vlad sighed as he leaned against the door while adjusting his red tie, “Well seeing as you would be the new heir to my business if I were to so tragically pass then you would be next in line little badger.”

“Now, I don't plan on dying soon,” Vlad chuckled, “But seeing as you’re here and your track record of having the people close to you die may change that.”

Danny whipped his head toward Vlad angrily, quickly rising uncontrollably. He felt the cold-core inside of him twitch begging for release. It wanted him to not hold back and attack in a way he had seen before. He knew he had the capability to and all he had to do was let go and let himself sit on the sideline for a few minutes. Looking past his own rage, Danny saw the sly smile adorning the older man's features. This was a joke to him, having Vlad’s blood on his hands would do nothing more than make him what he feared he would become. It just wasn't worth it, at least for the deranged billionaire in front of him it wasn't. 

“We are leaving tonight, make sure you are ready to go by eight o’clock sharp Daniel.” 

The heavy door shut quietly leaving Danny alone once again in silence. He looked down at his hands. They were steaming with dark green energy too similar to a foe he thought he could never become.

* * *

An hour later with a shower and fresh clothes on Danny felt like a new person. Well, new considering he had quieted the rage filing up his core trying to twist itself in his head. After finishing getting dressed Danny plopped on the unmade bed. He reached for the tv remote on the bedside table and his eyes met the sight of a half-packed suitcase lying on the desk across from him. He really did need to pack considering he had little choice in the business trip was being forced to go on, but it could wait a little longer.

He turned the tv on and began flipping through channels absentmindedly. Danny needed a distraction.

It felt like that was all he ever did now. Look for distractions to feel the painfully vacant hole in his chest that felt like swallowing him whole sometimes. Hours could pass by and he could be none-the-wiser too busy lost in his own mind.

He landed on a random news channel and left it there. He wasn't planning on watching it, but it would provide a sufficient amount of background noise so he wouldn't feel like he was choking on the silence. 

Letting the remote fall out of his hands and falling back onto the bed he closed his eyes. He wasn't going to sleep, sleep was out of the equation. If possible Danny never wanted to close his eyes and let his mind drift asleep. The nightmares were too vivid, too real. 

_ We interrupt this broadcast with a shocking sight in New York City. About ten minutes ago a strange green portal opened in the center of Times Square, it had yet to close, but it seems as if nothing is coming out though. _

Danny shot up forward eyes wide as he stared at the tv. A random natural ghost portal opening in the center of New York’s busiest street? Coincidence? Most likely not, but nothing was going out so it must have been an accident. He should probably check it out just to make sure it was safe, but he knew Vlad would be chastising him to go back to his room and ignore it. He was strictly on ‘bed rest’ even though he was perfectly fine. 

_ We will continue to monitor the portal’s development-Holy Hell what is that! _

Danny focused on the tv once again and frowned. He just couldn't catch a breath, could he?

* * *

“Alright, Point Blank this seems more like you and your brothers’ territory here.”

Tony Stark just could not catch a break. To start the day off Pepper had told him he had an important business meeting that needed his immediate attention tomorrow, then Thor had randomly walked through his front door alongside his psychotic brother, and now he was learning that ghosts were apparently very much so real...

“I AM TECHNUS, I WILL TAKE OVER ALL OF THE TECHNOLOGY OF THIS CITY AND USE IT TO RULE THIS WORLD!’

...and annoying.

“Geeze,” Rhodey flew up beside Tony in the air, guns firing at the floating man, “Will this guy ever shut up?”

“Don’t know, but I bet him and Clint would have a hay day together,” Tony fired his repulsor and couldn't hide his shock when the burning ray didn't even phase the being. 

Whatever the hell this thing was, it was not going down with regular weapons. Everything went through the ghost. No amount of bullets, repulsor rays, or arrows slowed the thing down. When Steve had tried to tackle him to the ground, the supersoldier simply fell right through him back onto the pavement. Natasha’s wrist shockers had the same effect. Even the God of Thunder and his mischievous brother couldn't seem to land a hit. 

All the while, the ghost, Technus flew into random billboards and somehow changed them to fit whatever he wanted. Random cars went flying about, light posts turned into medieval death traps, and electrical wires snapped like vipers at everyone without discrimination. 

“YOU HUMANS ARE SO STUPID!” Technus laughed almost mechanically, “I AM YOUR NEW RULER BOW DOWN TO ME AS I CONTROL ALL TECHNOLOGY OF THIS CITY!”

“Tony,” Steve's strict voice came over the coms, “Any ideas?”

Tony rolled his eyes within his suit, “Yeah, I’m thinking maybe we should have Nat take him out to dinner-Of course not! First time dealing with annoying dead creatures here too.”

Tony followed Rhodey as he landed on the ground to regroup with everyone. Natasha stared up at the being with cold calculating eyes trying to figure some way on how to stop it. Clint stood angrily beside her with his quiver empty. Not even his explosive arrows did anything to slow the being down. Sam along with Steve stared at Tony expectantly and the billionaire rolled his eyes. 

“This is the first time I have ever seen a being from Hel survive this long on Midgard. I never knew this was possible,” Thor scratched his head at a loss. 

Behind him, Loki snorted, “Well, considering that our sister was the ruler of Hel I am not shocked. Perhaps some of her power seeped into Midgard allowing these beings to be able to roam here for so long.”

“Any ideas on how to stop the bastard?” Clint looked directly at Thor not once acknowledging Loki.

From the moment Clint had seen Loki he refused to accept his being. Other than the first few seconds where Clint had managed to push past Thor and hold a knife to the trickster's throat that is. No one could blame the man. Clint still had a hard time accepting everything he had done under Loki’s brainwashing, it would be hard to look past that fact for him as well as the whole trying to take over New York with an army of Chitari at his beck and call. 

Loki answered disinterested, “Not in the slightest, but he should start to fade soon. This realm does not support their kind.”

“So we just let this thing go on and cause destruction until it just rolls over and goes back where it came from?” Sam stepped forward ignoring the hard look Steve threw at him.

Loki nodded, “Yes.”

“That's-” Sam started but Steve grabbed a hold of his arm holding him in place. 

For once, Tony was happy that Steve had that ability to stop someone from doing what he did not want at a given moment. The headache that was pulsating at his temples already did not have enough energy to care if Loki and Sam had a battle to the deaths. Maybe he would throw in a couple of encouraging words and condolences when Sam Wilson inevitably got stabbed in the back and died on the pavement in the middle of Times Square. 

Steve stepped in front of Sam to speak, but another green portal opened right in front of him stopping him in his tracks. Everyone gathered closer to see inside, but it was murky. Green swirling masses and random purple objects floated about. 

A mop of messy white hair protruded from the portal causing everyone to take a step back. Blazing green eyes stared back at them, “Alright, so I am definitely in New York this time, not some old ladies toilet.”

The being walked-no- floated out of the portal and popped his neck, then his knuckles, “Man, I really need to practice opening portals more I suck.”

The white-haired ghost cocked his head, “Woah, you guys look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

A joke. First, a ghost that screamed every detail of his plot to take over New York City and caused havoc, and now a teenager making death jokes. Tony decided right then and there that sobriety was overrated.

“Get it? ‘Cause I’m a ghost?” The being laughed easily, “Anyways, I heard you guys were having some problems. Don’t worry, this guy's a piece of cake. I'll get rid of him in no time.”

Not waiting for another second, the being shot up into the sky right at the ghost. Tony grimaced as he expected the new ghost to fly right through, but was shocked to see him make direct contact. Obviously, the other ghost was not expecting the surprise hit either as he went flying into a billboard.

“WHY YOU! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE PHANTOM!”

The ghost shrugged, “Well, and here I thought you would be happy to see me Technus, guess not.”

Tehcnus growled and sent cars and electrical wiring at the boy who easily dodged like it was nothing. At one point he yawned and scratched at his back as if bored. The two fought, Technus appeared to be struggling to try and find a way to get back at the younger ghost, but was failing, and soon the other ghost launched another deadly blow sending the other ghost to the ground. A billow of smoke erupted from the impact. Suddenly, two bright green breams shot up and hit the ghost sending him into a billboard. A second passes, then another and the ghost has yet to appear again. 

Behind him, Loki muttered, “How...This should be impossible..”

Before Tony could turn around and reply, Technus appeared in front of him before disappearing inside of his suit. The inside of his suit turned a dark green and the ghost spoke within it, “Hmm, that'll definitely do.”

“Friday, what’s going on?”

The suit shot into the air without his consent, his normally faithful A.I. uncannily quiet.

One moment he was soaring into the air higher and higher and then he was in free fall with no control. The wind took the air out of his lungs leaving him unable to yell as he fell bonelessly. He was going to hit the ground and die. This was it. 

“Whoa, you’re kinda heavy!” Strong arms pulled him back up as his system began to reboot itself. Warnings flashed across the screen and Friday was talking to him, but all of his attention was directed to the blazing green eyes in front of him.

“Pretty nifty suit, but it won’t do much good against him,” The being continued, “Sorry, I wasn't quicker I was thinking of a few puns to use against that techno-geek.”

“Stark!”

“Tones, are you okay?”

“Tony! What’s going on!”

The billionaire shook his head and replied, “Yeah, all good just wanted to go skydiving, without a parachute or anything.”

“Stark,” Loki’s voice was low, dangerous, “You can not trust these beings, they will try and trick you. They are very dangerous. Do not engage.”

Tony stared at the ghost in front of him. He didn't look dangerous or like he was trying to trick him. He looked...worried, and if it wasn't for the stark white hair and glowing green eyes then Tony would have believed this was a normal human teenager. 

“Anyways, I’m gonna go close his tabs, he’s done enough damage today.” The boy gave a salute then jumped off the building flying right back into battle with Technus.

Tony stood and watched the rest of the fight. Now, the young ghost was not holding back his punches and within seconds he was trapped in what looked like a thermos. The younger ghost stared back at him again and waved before turning and flying away with incredible speed.

Crisis averted. There was some property damage, but he would easily pay them off. Tony should feel better. There were no serious injuries, no casualties. It was a win. One that the team was in no way prepared for, but a win nonetheless. He should feel good, but instead, he felt cold and empty.

That first ghost seemed older. He was out for blood even if he was annoying, there was no remorse for what he was doing. Yet, that younger ghost, Phantom was trying to help. He did help, he single-handedly got rid of the other being without seemingly breaking a sweat. He was full of life and energy, but he was dead.

That was a child. A dead one.

* * *

“Mister Stark!”

“Mister Stark are you okay! I’m so sorry! I was taking a chemistry test and we had to turn our phones in and I wasn't wearing my suit! I came as soon as I heard about what was going on! Are you okay? I am so-”

Tony held his hand to the energetic boy in front of him. Right now, with his brain moving at a thousand miles a minute, the last thing he needed was the equally fast-moving thinker asking him a million questions. He had enough questions and concerns to think about in his own head, no need for the brainiac to add more to his plate of unanswered ones. 

“Peter, I’m fine, it’s a school night, you need to be heading home.”

The boy frowned, “Today is Friday Mister Stark.”

Huh, the billionaire really had lost time with everything that had been going on all week. 

“I was doing some research and I found out a few things about that awesome ghost that came and helped out.” Peter reached into his backpack pulling out a black notebook, “There are records of that ghost dating back to 27 BC! And that's not all, he pops up in all kinds of obscure moments in history, like-”

“Did you say 27 BC?” Tony frowned.

The boy halted and gave a curt nod before continuing, but Tony turned him out. 

27 BC. So that ghost isn't a child after all. The relief that flooded him was palpable. He had not realized that thinking the ghost was an actual teenager had that much effect on him but it had. Knowing that some innocent kid had died and decided to go out and play hero eased the nagging questions in his head. He couldn't help the sadness that had crept into his heart when he first saw the ghost. It had reminded him of Peter. If that had been Peter, full of life, too good for his own good Peter he would be crushed. Just knowing that a kid, someone who looked no more than sixteen years old had died...It was not good for his already frail heart. 

“Mister Stark, did you hear me?”

“Huh?” Tony hadn't realized he turned away from Peter, “Sorry, what’d you say kid?”

The boy raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about Tony’s zoning out, which he was internally grateful for. He was trying to be more open and express how he felt, but saying out loud to Peter how he would feel if that was him was too much to open up about, no matter how much he truly appreciated having Peter Parker around. 

“I said that Invisobil started showing up around this town in Illinois about three years ago but he randomly vanished a few months ago.”

“I’m sorry did you just say ‘ _ Invisobil” _ ?” Tony couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him, what a ridiculous name.

“Yeah, some people gave him that name because they didn't know what he liked to go by.”

Peter rolled his chair over to a computer and began typing away fervently. Once in a while once something caught his eye he would grab his notebook tighter and write a few more notes down. 

Tony took a seat across from him. In his head, he knew he needed to know more. No, he needed to find that ghost again and ask him his questions directly. Why come help? How was he able to stay on Earth so long? Why Illinois? Why, why why. 

“Peter,” Tony scratched his beard refraining from chuckling as the boy rapidly turned and the pen in his mouth fell into his lap, “Where in Illinois was this ghost?”

Peter picked up the pen and tapped it against his thigh, “Well, he showed up in a lot of places, but it was mostly in this town called Amity Park.”

Amity Park, Illinois. 

Tony knew exactly what he would be doing tonight.

* * *

After successfully finding the portal back to Vlad’s mansion and disposing of Technus deep into the ghost zone, Danny plopped onto his bed. He still had packing to do and he only had about thirty more minutes until he was supposed to meet Vlad downstairs and head for New York. He groaned and rolled over digging himself deeper into the mountain of pillows. He could wait a few more minutes.

The door flew open and angry steps marched into his room.

_ ‘Maybe not,’  _ Danny thought bitterly to himself before sitting up.

A hard smack to his face landed him right back into the mountain of pillows.

“What the heck Vlad?” Danny growled and rolled off of the bed rubbing his cheek.

Vlad raised his hand again to strike, but Danny dodged. The burning pink ectoplasmic ray that followed was unavoidable though. It hit Danny square in the chest sending him flying backward into the mirror on the wall. Glass shattered slicing little marks on his back and arms. 

“You idiot.” Vlad grabbed the boy by the throat, “How is it that you manage to mess everything up.”

Danny choked, “You gotta be more specific V-Man.”

Vlad huffed and threw him back onto the floor, “Does New York ring a bell, Daniel? Fighting Technus?”

“I gave you one job. Packing. And you somehow managed to mess that up!” 

Danny rolled his shoulder, the stinging on his back was bearable. It was already beginning to heal the same as the cuts decorating his arms, “Technus was causing problems and we both knew none of them would be able to handle it! Someone had to help and I just so happened to see it on the news!”

Vlad cracked his neck and a wave of black washed over him turning him into his other half. He turned back to Danny electricity crackling between his fingers, “That was the point you insolent fool!”

The boy's eyebrows creased in confusion and a moment later he understood. Vlad had sent Technus there. He knew that the ghost would be there to cause havoc and there was no one there to stop him. He growled anger rising quickly once again. Bright white rings formed at his waist and traveled over his body. He let the hot angry ectoplasmic power seep through him until his own green rays of energy formed at his hands. 

Vlad had sent Technus there on purpose. Just when he had tried to give the man the shadow of the doubt, he had done something horrible again and again. The cycle never ended.

Danny released the rays at Vlad, but he easily placed a shield to block the attack, “Why would you do that you fruit-loop, people could have gotten hurt!”

Another pink ray hit him in the chest, but Danny easily stood his ground eyes blazing green at Vlad.

“It’s called business Daniel. That is how this works. Someone finds they are in a situation they are unable to protect themselves in and then the supplier provides the necessary tools.” 

“What if someone got hurt!” Danny flew at Vlad, but the man caught him by the throat again.

He threw Danny across the room and he went into the closet. Unopened boxes and clothes fell on top of him.

“Simple, I. Do. Not. Care.” Vlad transformed back to his human self and adjusted his tie, “it’s called capitalism Daniel. Something I was hoping to teach you on this trip. Get your things together and then we are leaving.”

Vlad turned and left, slamming the door behind him. Danny scoffed and let the transformation take him over as well. He grumbled to himself as he threw the boxes and clothes off of him and threw a few into the suitcase sitting in front of him.

“Well, capitalism is stupid.”


	2. Dungens and Dragons...But More Dragons than Dungens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah, really wasn't expecting as many people to actually like this. I'm pumped that some of you guys took the time to read it and leave a comment! It really means a lot to hear people's support and what they liked! Thanks and I hope you like this chapter!

_ Pepper is going to kill me. _

That was the only thought that Tony could comprehend as he speed-walked throughout the massive tower towards some meeting that he still did not really know what it was about. Something about another rising millionaire who wanted to team up with Stark Industries and ‘revolutionize the world’. To Tony, it sounded like some wanna-be jackass that he was going to end up telling no. He had dealt with that narcissistic type one too many times and was not looking forward to adding another to his exceptionally long list of people that he did not want to associate with.

Tony stopped at the black doors and adjusted his tie and repositioned his glasses on his face. Just because he could give two craps less about whom he was about to turn down, he was not going to go in there looking disheveled. That was just not the Stark look.

After clearing his throat, he opened the door in a grand manner with an award-winning smile decorating his face. Pepper turned and glowered at him with her arms crossed. 

_ Oh yeah, I am definitely dead. _

Pushing the thought of his death aside, Tony walked further into the room taking in the appearance of the other man. He wore a black suit decorated with a red tie and matching handkerchief. A glass of whiskey lazily held sideways in his grip and annoying features.

“Ah, nice to meet you Mr.-”

“Masters. Vlad Masters.” The man sighed and sat the glass down, “Nice to see you’ve finally shown up,” The man checked the watch on his wrist, “...Ten minutes late.”

Pepper turned and gave Vlad a forced smile and it instantly vanished when she turned to Tony. She walked towards him and placed an arm on his shoulder and squeezed, the look adorning her face telling him everything he had already assumed.

Good luck, he is a jackass.

Tony nodded and Pepper was out the door at record speed. He made a mental note to take her out to dinner somewhere nice soon. She deserved it for everything he put her through.

“Right, sorry I was taking care of a few loose ends and got caught up in my work,” Tony made his way to the chair behind the desk, “Time flies when you’re elbow-deep in grease huh.”

The man was obviously not impressed. Vlad scoffed and sat down in front of him. One leg crossed over the other and hands resting perfectly intertwined on his lap, “I suppose, but I do manage my time wisely so that has never been an issue for me.”

The heavy silence between the two was hot and awkward. Tony adjusted the sleeve on his suit and creased his eyebrows at the man in front of him. He looked unbothered by the effect the temperature of the room and awkwardness had on him. Tony cleared his throat, he had dealt with this more times than he ever would have wanted to, this was child’s play.

“So, what is it that you are wanting to work with SI on,” Tony leaned back in his chair, “From what I recall reading you are more of a biological and physiology-focused business? How are you wanting to incorporate this to SI?”

The man raised a brow and chuckled. It was unnerving. Tony did not like the nonchalant way the man was presenting himself. It was obviously not his intention to come in here and have a nice chat. No, this was a man with an agenda. A parasite trying to find a foothold to latch onto and take over his business. The calm and collected exterior could not hide the lust raging in his stone-grey eyes.

“Why I am, but that is not why I came here today,” He grabbed a file folder sitting beside him and slid it across the desk to Tony, “I heard about your recent incident with a couple of ghosts and I actually happen to have some expertise in that area.”

Tony flipped the file open and saw paper after paper of weapons, blueprints, and uses, “Do you now?”

The man hummed contently and continued on, “Although I do not necessarily broadcast the more paranormal part of my business I can assure you it is very real. I already supply most weapons for a specialized ghost hunting team sent to eradicate a few ghosts from a town that I frequented once or twice.”

Tony closed the file and rubbed his chin. Despite the uneasiness he got from the man sitting in front of him, this was a good opportunity. The attack from that ghost had opened the billionaire’s mind to new threats. New threats which he knew nothing about. The only ones who could even provide him with any useful information had been Thor and Loki, but even their information was lacking. That and it was all bad. 

“I don’t suppose that the town would have been Amity Park Illinois, would it?”

Vlad raised a brow, “Actually yes, it was, how did you know?”

The concern was well hidden by the man’s voice, but Tony could see it. The way the man’s shoulders tensed for a second before going back to their calm relaxed state. The way he craned his neck to the side as if finally feeling the heat in the room. He made a mental note to figure out the man’s odd antics later, right now he had someone with information about ghosts and perhaps even a certain white hared one that couldn’t leave his thoughts. 

“Just trying to cover my bases from that attack,” Tony shrugged and decided that he would gauge the man’s reaction for his next statement, “Maybe even find where a ghost named Phantom was so I could thank him.”

The reaction was immediate and completely opposite from what he expected. The man’s lip snarled and he huffed and turned away from him. His shoulders tensed while his knuckles turned white from the grip on the chair.

“I would not recommend that Stark,” Vlad said dangerously.

Tony scratched his beard, “And why not? Enlighten me, Mr. Masters.”

The man turned back to him with the same hatred on his face, “Because that ghost killed some dear friends of mine. He tried to kill me and countless others. He is not to be trusted. That is actually the ghost that the organization I told you about earlier is trying to catch. He is malicious, bloodthirsty, and hides behind the face of a child.”

Tony opened up his mouth to speak, but the big black doors opened revealing a teenaged boy with messy black hair. His hair covered his face, but he walked confidently into the room with a stack of papers in his hands.

“Oh, sorry for barging in,” The boy said sassily, obviously with no remorse for barging in, “Vladdie forgot a few important papers.”

Tony’s eyes widened. He knew that voice from somewhere. It was the same voice he heard when he thought he plummeted to his death a few days ago. It wasn’t nearly as echoey, but maybe his ears had been ringing from adrenaline. But the hair on this kid was black and he looked to be very much alive. Tony saw his chest rise and fall as he handed the papers to the shell-shocked man sitting in front of him.

“Sorry, Mr. Stark meet by godson Daniel Fenton,” Vlad took a deep breath, “Daniel, this is-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Tony Stark. I’ll get out of your hair now, just thought those looked important.” The boy raised his head to Tony and all the pieces slowly fell into place.

This boy. This ghost? What was this? This whatever in front of him was the ghost that had saved his life. The same ghost that everybody’s first reaction was to not trust them and they were out looking to cause havoc and destruction. The boy in front of him was skinny, he didn’t hold himself high like the ghost he had encountered, but the similarities between the two were too much to push to the side. The same body structure, hair cut, voice, and face. The only difference between the two was the color of hair and glowing green eyes.

Tony wondered to himself if the man in front of him knew if this kid, this ghost was the same one that had murdered his friends. How could he not know? But the disgust and anger in his voice when he talked of Phantom did a complete 360 when Danny had walked into the room. There was no way Vlad Masters knew that this boy was Phantom then. Did that make him out to be the dangerous trickster that everyone had told him he was?

“Wait,” Tony called out to the boy, “Why don’t you stay. Did you say your last name was Fenton?”

The boy turned around eyes hard and for a moment Tony thought he saw a flash of green in his blue eyes. 

“Yeah, why?”

Tony took a deep breath, he needed to calm down and collect his thoughts. Right now he could make a proper assessment of the kid and if he was deemed dangerous then he could try and stop him or at least slow him down. Perhaps the creepy old man had brought a few weapons to show him.

“I was doing some research about ghosts and found some things about your parent’s work? Would they ever be interested in showing an old geezer like me the ropes sometimes?”

Tony ignored the scowl on Vlad’s face. He really did not want to accept this man’s help, but it was true, he was completely in the dark in this territory and it was driving him crazy.

“Actually...Umm,” Danny looked down and held the back of his neck, “They died.”

Tony frowned. The boy didn’t look back up at him and start laughing crazily. So far, there had been no evidence against why this kid was known to be such a bad guy. He seemed like a normal teenage kid. 

“Ahh yes,” Vlad brought his handkerchief to his eye, “Dear Madeline and Jack along with their wonderful daughter and a few other of Daniel's friends sadly died at the hands of that ghost Phantom we were just discussing.”

Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes. For every second longer, he stayed in this room with the man the more reasons he found to not like him. 

The way Danny’s head whipped to Vlad angrily did not get past him, his fists clenched at his sides tightly and the dark expression on his face genuinely made him worry for the man. Tony had all the proof he needed. Daniel Fenton was Phantom. And by the looks of it, he did not hurt anyone. 

But how? The question nagged him. How was this boy, frail and breathing, be the ghost he had seen singlehandedly get rid of a monster that a whole group of Avengers couldn’t with ease. It made no sense.

“I am sorry about your family, I understand what it’s like to go through that at a young age.” Tony smiled, but it didn’t last as the boy just shrugged his shoulders and went to leave once again.

Just as he stopped at the door he paused and turned back to Tony with a sly smile decorating his face, “You know, Vlad here is more of a businessman that cares about a fat paycheck instead of trying to make his products affordable and keep people safe. But I figured you knew that he can try and hide it with his weird fake British accent, but it doesn’t hide that creepy fruit-loop sitting there.”

Vlad’s face had gone slack, completely unprepared for the onslaught of words. Tony was in a very similar boat.

The boy continued, his voice gaining more confidence as he went on, “I guess that’s how this whole capitalism thing works, but if you actually care about people then I wouldn’t mind helping out. I might not look it, but I know a thing or two.”

The boy gave Vlad a shit-eating grin, “Ain’t that right V-Man?” then prompt left.

Vlad was red-faced and apologizing to Tony, but the man paid no attention. He would let Pepper deal with telling the man they did not want his business. She always did get a kick-off of telling others that their services were of no use here. And for this narcissistic old man, Pepper would rip him to shreds. 

‘Mr. Masters,” Tony interrupted him, “Why don’t we continue this discussion later, say six o’clock here sharp, and bring that kid with you.”

Vlad nodded and gathered his things to leave in a hurry, no doubt going to give that boy a talking to.

The billionaire had made up his mind. Daniel Fenton, whatever he was, was an ally.

* * *

_ Slap. _

Danny went skidding into the same trash can for the fourth time in a row. This time a mysterious banana peel ended up on his head. Before he had time to get up his head was being slammed against the metal of the garbage can. His ears rang and the burnt taste of copper and ectoplasm burned his throat. 

His head collided with the garbage can again and suddenly he was falling right back into a different garbage can. A rat in the can hissed and scurried away from him. Danny chuckled to himself. So, New Yorkers really did have a rat problem.

“If I had my way with you Daniel,” A hand reached and blocked the boy's air, “Then I would have given you to Skulker to hang your hide on his wall years ago!”

The next second Danny was flying through the air until he hit a brick wall. His vision went blurry and he groaned from the bones out of place in his back. It was more of a nuisance rather than an actual problem. In no time, they would start to heal and he would be back to his normal self.    
  


Pain was only temporary.

“Six o’clock,” Vlad spat above him, “None of that earlier nonsense or this will seem like child play to what I do next.”

Danny watched as Vlad took an edge of his cape and vanished leaving him all alone drenched in unknown trash juices and his own blood. He groaned as he pushed himself to sit upright on the wall. Looking at the sky he assumed it was around two in the afternoon, he could afford to stay here and relax for a few hours. 

Pain is temporary, but being empty is not.

* * *

_ Paranormal Activity and How to Stop It. _

_ The Undead: Real or Not. _

_ Summoning Spirits. _

_ The Long and Horrific History of Spirits. _

Peter tossed the book aside in the ever-growing pile beside him. Everything he could find about ghosts, spirits and the undead were all a joke. Stupid fictional novels that sold for a way much more than what they were worth. He sighed but picked up the next book in the stack,  _ Dealing with Your Dead Sister-In-Law. _

“Peter, did you ever get to see that ghost?”

Peter dropped the book to look at his friend Ned. He had several useless books opened up around him with sticky notes in various places. A wondrous lust twinking in his eyes.

“No Ned.” He picked up another book.

“Is he going to become part of the Avengers?”

He flipped the book open to a random page,” I don’t know.”

“Man that would be so cool,” Ned rubbed his chin, “It would be the first dead superhero!”

Peter absentmindedly nodded with his friends' thoughts. In times like these, it was best to let Ned ask anything he wanted and nod along with his theories. 

“Do you really think he is as old as it seems? I mean, when I was researching last night there were records dating him back in ancient Roman times!”

Peter tossed the book to the side, “I dunno.”

Peter wondered how Ned was reading these books. They were all painfully obvious jokes. All some random junk someone put into words and said was real. He wanted to see proof. Rock-solid proof that would blow his mind away and leave him with even more questions than what he had. If only he hadn't been in the middle of taking a test during the attack. Then, maybe he could have been able to talk to that ghost and ask him questions…

“...Hey Peter.”

“Yeah,” Peter put his head down on the table, boredom seeping into his bones.

“Did you think he was cute?”

Peter's eyes widened and he shot straight up, “What? No!” His voice that was two octaves higher and the burning sensation all over his face and ears betrayed him. 

“SHHH!” The old librarian gave the pair a death stare across the room and Peter ducked his head low.

Ned snickered, “Oh boy, Peter has a crush!”

“No, I don’t Ned!” Peter pulled a book in front of his face to hide the heat on his cheeks, “Now be quiet and keep looking.”

Ned sighed dramatically and the Peter another grin, “Fine, drag me into your lover's quarrel.”

The other boy quieted down and Peter put the book down. He did not think that the ghost was cute. I mean, he was a ghost. That was a person that was dead! How could he find someone that was dead cute? Is that even possible? Do ghosts even have feelings? Do they feel love or date? I mean, if that dreamy white-haired boy with green eyes were a living breathing person…

Peter shook his head. No, it was impossible and he had his eyes set on MJ anyways. Cold and scary MJ.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and Peter pulled it out for Ned to see too. He clicked on the news report and let the video play.

_ ‘Reporting live just outside of the corner of 5th Avenue and 33rd street we are reporting another strange portal that opened a few seconds ago over the Empire State building. So far, nothing has come out, but we will be keeping an eye on it up close.’ _

_ The helicopter that the reporter was in flew closer to the portal, ‘As you can see-’ _

_ A shattering roar shook the helicopter and they quickly began to move away. The reporter had lost her microphone in shock and stared dumbfounded out the window. The camera moved to where the reporter was looking. A gigantic dark purple dragon crawled out of the portal. Only the lights from the surrounding buildings and the eerie green glow from the portal illuminating it. _

_ ‘Holy shit, we have to get out of here Debra.’ _

_ The helicopter continued moving away, but the dragon swung its tail hitting the helicopter. It spiraled out of control and the people inside screamed as they hurtled toward the Empire State building fast. _

_ “Woah there, easy drag-on racers,” An echoey voice laughed, “Get it, 'cause it’s a dragon?” _

_ The camera swiveled to the voice and a white-haired boy smiled back at them, “How about next time you leave the dragon hunting to me.” _

_ The news reporter turned back to the camera and covered the screen until it shut off. _

Peter fumbled out of his chair and grabbed his backpack and went to leave before a hand stopped him. He turned back to Ned who wouldn’t look him in the eyes.

A moment passed and Ned looked up at Peter, worry lining his features, “Be careful Peter.”

The boy nodded and quickly exited the library. Even being several blocks away he could hear the echoing roars from the monstrosity he had just seen.

* * *

“Come on Aragon,” Danny flew a few meters away from the ghost, “Go back to your more self-righteous annoying half and we can talk this out.” 

The dragon roared again and released a wave of flames at Danny. He easily dodged the flames and sent out a wave of ice-cold energy to extinguish them. This was not the way he was planning this evening to go. Danny took a quick look at the building behind him to look at the time. Six-fifteen… The boy sighed, not only was he going to have to deal with Aragon’s crap, but Vlad was also going to kick his ass for not showing up to the meeting with Tony Stark.

Why had the man wanted him there anyway? What he said was more or less a joke just to make Vlad mad, surely the genius would have been able to see that. That or Vlad would have explained that it was a joke and he was being a moody teenager lashing out because of his circumstances.

Another volley of flames came his way and Danny flew around them and landed his own volley of rays at the dragon. Of course, it did not do anything to truly bother the ghost in this form. It was powerful and Aragon used his rage which made it all the harder. 

Danny set his shoulders and flew in again, releasing ray after ray at the dragon's head. Maybe if he just kept hitting him he would grow weaker and once he got close enough he could grab the amulet around his neck and switch Aragon back. He would be much easier to capture once he was reverted back to his other form. 

Just as he got close enough to reach the amulet, Aragon threw him into a building across the street. Danny groaned and easily held the three deep scratches across his chest. Around him, he heard screams and people shuffling out of the room. Cracking one eye open he saw Aragon fly straight at him. The dragon grabbed him and threw him into another building. The windows broke and pierced his skin making it sting. Thankfully, it appeared that no one was occupying the building. Danny rolled onto the plush carpet and coughed, little droplets of ectoplasm landing on the floor.

“Oh yeah that’s not good,” Danny wiped the ectoplasm off his lips and stood.

Aragon was floating in the middle of the road, roaring at anything around him he could see and setting fire in the streets. Danny needed to end this quickly or else random civilians would get hurt. He stood up ignoring the pain in his joints as he floated to the opening where he collided with and looked around. Thankfully, most people were running away for their lives, but there were still a few morons hiding behind cars with their phones out recording the destruction. 

A white web shot in front of him blocking his path. Danny hesitantly plucked the wire, but nothing happened. He turned to Aragon, but the dragon was not looking at him. He touched the wire again confused. Where did this come from? What even was it? It looked like a single spider web, but the last time Danny had checked, there were not humanoid spiders in New York capable of making webs as big as this.

“Hey there!” A red and blue figure suddenly dropped down upside down, “How can I help?”

Danny screamed and landed on his butt. The stinging from his chest made him gasp out of pain. The figure put his hands up and landed on the floor in front of him, “I am so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! Are you hurt?”

Danny blinked. Who the Hell was this?

“Ummm, you just shocked me,” Danny slowly stood back up, “And I’m fine, thanks.”

_ It’s not a ghost obviously, my ghost sense didn’t alert me of him. So who is this? Did Aragon get a new buddy? _

“I’m Spiderman!” The figure held out his hand enthusiastically, “I was in the neighborhood and thought I could help out.”

Danny took the man's hand and smiled, but faltered when the other recoiled.

“Sorry! Your hand is just really cold.” He said sheepishly.

Danny chuckled, “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Inside of his suit, Peter was grinning ear to ear. Sure the destruction and twenty-foot-tall dragon spewing fire behind him were scary, but here he was. Making conversation with a ghost that had single-handedly saved New York from another ghost. He could not wait to tell Ned about this. A million questions raced through his mind. Should he ask how old he was first? No, he should definitely ask how being a ghost was. Or maybe he should start off with why he was helping them, or how he became a ghost, or-

“You could actually help me out if you still want to.”

Peter turned back to the ghost. He was thankful for the mask concealing his face because he could feel the heat rising in his cheeks, this ghost actually was  _ really _ cute. The pictures he had found on the internet did not do him justice compared to standing only a few inches away from him. He was very lean, yet Peter could see muscle definition. It was similar to his own physique after the spider bite. He was pale, but it suited him with the stark white hair and the glowing emerald eyes complimented the whole look. Peter shook his head, he needed to stop this. This was a ghost and he was alive and going after MJ. 

“Yeah!” Peter stumbled, “Anything, you name it and Spider-Cops got it handled.”

Danny laughed and floated to the opening pointing at some civilians recording the dragon on their phones, “Obviously, the ender Dragon didn’t scare these people out of their mines.”

“Right,” Peter nodded, “Time for someone to help them find their respawn spot.”

Danny turned and smiled, he liked this guy, “Alright, I’d tell you another ender pun before I left, but it’d just  _ drag-on _ .”

With that, Danny took off not waiting to hear the uncontrollable laugh that came from Spider-Man. The light jokes had helped ease his mind off of the stinging in his chest and with renewed strength, he charged at Aragon.

* * *

“Well, this is certainly a mess.”

Steve Rogers sighed at Natasha’s dripping sarcasm. The woman had a point despite the disinterested tone of her voice. Most of the street was in ruins or on fire. And in the center of all the destruction was a glowing twenty-foot dragon roaring. 

Sam and Clint stopped beside him and frowned. No doubt with the same thought as the supersoldier beside them.

How were they supposed to stop this ghost if they couldn’t even land a punch of the last one?

Thor and Loki were running about trying to put out as many fires as possible, but there were so many that it appeared to not make a difference. At least, the fires were not spreading uncontrollably, then it would have been even more disastrous.

“So, Spangles,” Tony landed in front of Steve and lifted his faceplate, “What’s your brilliant plan this time?”

Steve dodged the question, “Where is Colonel Rhodes?”

Tony glowered and put the mask back down, “Today is PT day. He’s benched for a while.”

Steve nodded and tried to push down the twinge of guilt. He still felt horrible for what happened to the other man. He had no problems with James, but he became a victim of the fighting that day and Steve didn’t know if he would ever truly forgive himself. It didn’t matter how many times James told him to forget about it and he wasn’t mad. That did not change the fact that his side had practically made the man incapable to ever walk on his own ever again. 

“Hey, Mister Stark!” Spider-Man swung down beside the billionaire, “How can I help?”

Steve watched as Tony put a hand on the boy's shoulder and walked further away from the group. He had been very cautious with the young superhero around all of them. One reason, because he knew they all disapproved of letting the boy fight due to his young age. The second reason is that he wanted to keep his identity secret and Tony was not one to break his promises.

Further away from the group, Tony opened his faceplate again, “Pete, you shouldn’t be here it’s dangerous. I thought we came to an agreement about playing heroes in your neighborhood for now.

Peter rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged, “Well, yeah, but I was in the area and Invisobil looked like he needed some help.”

Tony let go of Peter and turned back to the dragon in front of him. Sure enough, after taking a closer look he could see the familiar ghost flying around the dragon throwing the same rays at him.

“All the more reason for you to go home kid,” Tony pushed Peter back towards the group, “We got this handled now.”

Peter scoffed and escaped his hold, but before he could say anything a yell cut him off. Tony turned and saw something hurtling towards them and barely had time to push himself and Peter out of the way before the crash. Smoke billowed around them and Tony coughed, he turned to the side Peter was supposed to be at but frowned at the vacant space. As the smoke cleared, he could see Peter standing over the spot holding a hand out.

“Step away son.” Steve placed a hand on Peter's shoulder and pulled him away.

Tony walked closer to the massive hole in the ground and saw none other but the ghost that had saved his life earlier. He was smiling sheepishly as he tossed rubble off of himself. 

“Whew, somebody is angry this time of month huh,” The ghost grimaced as he floated to the road.

Instantly Thor and Loki were standing in front of him.

“Who are you?” Thor 

The ghost chuckled, “Well, right now I am the guy playing whack a mole with a dragon and I am the mole.”

Loki brandished a dagger and pointed it at the ghost's chest, “Answer my brother now, abomination.”

Danny’s smile instantly faltered and a menacing look twisted his features. Tony unconsciously took a step back. It was quite frightening and he could see how Vlad Masters could think this being was evil. The way his whole demeanor changed in a second was terrifying. It had felt like the area around them dropped a few degrees with the change in his mood.

Peter broke free of Steve’s grip and ran up beside Danny, “Stop! He’s helping us!”

Loki did not falter, instead, he raised an eyebrow and brandished a second dagger at Peter. Tony’s heart jumped and he walked closer to the group, “Hey ugly, get that dagger away from him. He is on our side.”

Thor placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and Loki reluctantly put the dagger pointed at Peter down. Tony's heart rate calmed if only a little bit.

Danny held his gaze on Loki before letting out a chuckle. He gingerly pushed the knife away with his finger and began floating again, “I’m the guy that has the capability to take that thing down and unless something had changed from the last time, I’m still the only one here that can deal with that.”

It was silent. Nobody said a word, and they couldn’t. It was true without the ghost's help, there would be no way to stop the creature from causing havoc in the middle of the street.

The trickster twisted the knife in his hand, “Perhaps, but how are we to know you are not trying to play us for fools. You’re kind is exceptionally deceptive and known for causing harm.”

Danny raised an eyebrow, “Do you know that for a fact, or is that what daddy Odin spoonfed you?”

“Okay!” Tony took a step forward in between the ghost and gods, “What’s your plan?”

Danny blinked back at Tony and turned back towards the dragon, “I need to get his amulet off, and then I’ll be able to put him back in the ghost zone. For that, I need Spider-Mans help.”

Peter perked back up, “Really! What can I do?”

Danny smiled down at Peter and he could feel his heart flutter, “I’m going to keep him distracted and when there is an opening, use those webs of yours to snatch his amulet.”

Steve stepped forward, “And what about us?”

“Easy, get those fires out. We’ll be done in a jiffy losers!” Danny exclaimed and grabbed Peter.

Tony stared at the pair as they flew closer to the dragon. He was still trying to wrap his head around this ghost being the same person he had just met a few hours earlier. The two seemed like complete and total opposites. Here, Phantom seemed so sure of himself and unwilling to walk away from the fight. He had seen that same sly look in Daniels eye when talking about Vlad Masters, but that was normal teenage behavior...Right? How was he supposed to know, he had been the worst teenager of all time. Getting drunk all the time and doing all kinds of other unholy things. 

If things were to pan out and this was Daniel Fenton...Well, he just needed to stop running into teenagers with heroic death wishes.

* * *

“Hey, Aragon!” Danny flew in circles around the dragon's head, “I think you need to lay off watching Sleeping Beauty for a while!”

Aragon turned with Danny as he flew around him, a line of fire nipping at his feet. Danny grunted and took a hard turn at the dragon's face. It staggered for a moment, but it was not enough for himself or Spider-Man who was perched off the Empire State building to be able to snatch the glowing green amulet off of his neck. He grunted and continued flying around his head. All he had to do was keep him distracted so that the other hero could use his webs and get the amulet off.

Danny sped around once more, “You listening ugly? You don’t have anything on Maleficent dude!”

Aragon growled and swiped at him in the air, but Danny dodged the large claw by phasing through it. Aragon roared and his other clawed hand reached out. The ghost's eyes widened as the hand enclosed around him and the next moment he was being hurtled to the ground again.

He groaned and rolled over onto the grass. Danny was getting really tired of making Phantom-shaped holes everywhere today.

Before he had time to launch another attack, Aragon had him in his grip being pulled closer to his face. Dark green eyes stared back at him angrily. Danny struggled in the ghost's grip but took a moment to look down at his exposed neck. This was the perfect time to strike. All he needed was Spider-Man to use those webs of his and-

_ Thwip. _

Danny smiled as the change was instantaneous. Aragon slowly began to shrink back down to his normal ghost. The man kneeled on the ground with purple smoke billowing around him. Danny landed in front of him and unhooked the dingy thermos from his belt.

“Time for a little nap,” Danny opened the thermos and pointed it at Aragon, “I’m pretty sure no one is going to kiss you awake either.”

Aragon growled and turned to the boy with hatred, “You will never be my king! You hear that! I will never accept it!”

Danny lowered the thermos, “Okay? I’m not a king so?”

Aragon laughed, “Even now you push away the promise for power; pathetic.”

Danny cocked his head, he was no king. If anyone should understand that he would have thought Aragon did the most. Even when fighting him for the very first time he had told the maniac he never wanted to be a king. All he wanted was for the fighting to stop and let his sister rule as she rightfully should. The boy frowned, but sucked up Aragon quickly and capped the thermos. Danny did not care about power, he had enough as it was.

“That was awesome!” Spider-Man landed beside him with his handheld high, “Come on don’t leave the arachnid hanging!”

Danny laughed and returned the gesture. It was uncommon to find people so willing to accept him and see him as more than a ghost that would stir up trouble. Even the Avengers, despite what he had hoped, thought of him as nothing more than a monster that was going to trick them. He wouldn’t dare say it out loud, but that had hurt. If the heroes of Earth could not see him as some kid just wanting to help, then what did that say about anyone else? Did everyone see him as some bad guy despite all the good he tried to do? Why was it never enough?

“Alright Invisobil,” Steve Rogers looked down on the pair, “We need to debrief and you are coming with us.”

Danny turned to the soldier and groaned, “Seriously? Not you all too.”

The confused looks on the people surrounding him made Danny want to hit his face, “That name is stupid, call me Phantom.”

“Okay, Phantom…” Steve's eyebrows creased, “We still need you in order to debrief and figure out if you are a threat or not.”

“Seriously?” Danny threw his arms in the air, “I just saved your-”

Danny never got to finish. A pair of strong arms took hold of him and darted off into the sky. Shaking away his stupor he looked down and saw familiar red eyes beading down on him. Vlad‘s grip on his was tight and dug into the still very open wounds on his chest. 

The boy sighed, not only were the Avengers going to have less trust in him now that he was being whisked away from another ghost, but he was also going to get his ass handed to him for the third time today. 

_ Great, now fruitloop drama. _


	3. I'm Alive but I'm Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, once again I am just flabbergasted by the amount of support I have gotten. I really did not believe that it would get this much attention. I love reading everybody's comments, they make my day and make me want to scramble back to my computer and write more!   
> Thank you, it really means a lot! So, here's this chapter and I hope you all enjoy it!

_ Screw sobriety. _

The number of times that single thought raced through Tony’s head should have made him realize that maybe he was working in the wrong profession.

“The number of unknowns from that creature is alarming,” Steve said, “We need to be able to find it and ask what their intentions are.”

“ _ It _ ,” Peter snarled from the corner, “has a name. Phantom.”

Tony rubbed his temple. He really needed a drink.

“Son, calm down,” Steve turned to the masked vigilante standing in the corner, “There are just a lot of things we need to work out, and finding out Phantom’s intentions are a top priority.”

The billionaire turned to Peter and even through the mask could tell that the boy was angry. Rightfully so, Peter had been very verbal since Tony had told the boy of the Captain’s return to the Avengers. At first, he was more concerned about what Tony thought of the situation and if it was right to let the part-time war criminal come back to his nine-to-five heroic job, but soon he began to question the man overall. Peter understood the Accords, and he may not agree with revealing his own identity, but at the time it was necessary. They all held great power and others were afraid of that and felt like they needed guidelines. The boy understood that, but what he could not understand was why Steve felt the need to betray everyone just to save someone that was a serial killer.

This was not the first time Tony heard Peter’s judgemental tone when speaking of Steve Rogers; however, it was a first for him to speak to the Captain in that tone.

“Beings of Phantoms kind are dangerous.” Loki shrugged, “I myself would like to know what he believes he is gaining by helping humans defeat those of his own kind.”

Thor nodded, “My brother is right. This is not expected of beings from Hel. Hela spoke of these creatures with great disdain despite being the ruler of the realm.”

Peter scoffed and crossed his arms. This was ridiculous, why couldn’t they see what he had seen. So what if Phantom did not act like every other ghost they had encountered or heard about before? Phantom helped, twice now. He did what the Avengers couldn’t even do! Not once did he try to cause destruction or take over the world or hurt anyone. 

“There is the fact that the other ghost just took him away too,” Clint shrugged as he twisted an arrow in his hand, arrowhead end pointed straight at Loki across from the table.

Steve nodded, “Yes, that could be an ally of his. Maybe even the one we truly need to be worried about. Phantom could just be a part of a bigger plan to make us put our guards down so the other one can do something.”

“Well, not that anyone cares or anything,” Tony said flippantly, “But I think Phantoms’ a good guy trying to help out.”

Steve frowned, “Maybe, but based on what information we have-”

“We don’t have any solid evidence saying that Phantom is trying to trick us,” Tony retorted, “He seems to want to help out.”

“He is dangerous,” Steve’s voice was low and dangerous, “There are too many unknowns.”

“Huh,” Tony glared back at the soldier, “And what about all those unknowns about James Barnes, Rogers.”

Steve instantly turned away and the room remained silent. All heads turned to the pair. Tony’s hard eyes never once leaving Steve.

“That is different Tony.”

Tony felt the anger rise up inside of him. How could one man be so stupid? He knew that Steve Rogers understood what that meant. The man that had killed so many without remorse. To Hell, if he wasn’t in control of himself. Tony did not care that he was brainwashed by Hydra into doing all the terrible things he did. James Barnes' hands were soaked in the blood of hundreds of people, including his own mother and father. 

“It’s not and you know it.” Tony stood, “Stop being so hypocritical.”

In his corner, Peter let out a breath. This was personal, too personal for even his own ears to hear. Sure he would stand up for Phantom anyway because he was a good guy just trying to help out. But that...That was different than this. This was a personal issue for the Avengers. James Barnes was the main reason for Steve to abandon Tony for some friend of his that was tortured for years and was believed to be dead until he tried to kill Steve himself.

“I’m just gonna...Umm, I’m gonna head out now,” Peter walked to the window and perched on the ledge and when no one said anything to him he leaped out into the night sky of New York.

Tony turned to the window as Peter lept away. Good for him, Peter did not need to hear any more of this drama. It was already unbearable for him to talk about it in the first place. It brought up unwanted memories of snow-covered mountains, bloodshed, and a deep betrayal in his heart. 

“Leave dealing with Phantom to me,” Tony walked to the door, “If I end up haunting any of your guy’s asses then you’ll know what to do next.”

_ God, I need a drink. _

* * *

“Shit!” Tony quickly put his thumb in his mouth. That was the third time he had accidentally shocked himself that night while working on upgrades for a new suit for Peter. Maybe it was the anger begging for release that made his hand so shaky, or it could have been the fact that it was currently four in the morning, and he desperately needed to go to bed.

“Boss,” Happy Hogan cracked the door to the lab open, “I found Peter out looking for that ghost and ended up driving him home.”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned his chair to face Happy. The man looked tired himself, but he held two coffees in his hand.

“I finally convinced him to just go home and sleep, but who knows with that kid.” Happy placed the cups of coffee on a bench across from Tony and sighed, “Also, Pepper wanted me to tell you that your meeting with Masters got pushed to tomorrow at four.”

He nodded at the coffee on the table, “Do with that as you want, but if I were you, I would try to get some sleep before talking to that douchebag.”

Tony waved a hand in the man’s direction, “Yeah, yeah don’t worry mom, let me pick my toys up first.”

Happy grunted and left the lab leaving Tony sitting there alone. Great, not only did he have to avoid Steve Rogers’ constant need to have the final word, but he was going to have to finally put Masters down. He didn’t know how he knew, but there was something wrong with him. Other than the obvious only in it for his gain mentality. There was just something off about the way he spoke of Phantom and how he acted with Daniel. The man obviously didn’t know the two were connected, but there was something wrong with the way he looked at him. It was almost like hatred, but not? The genius couldn’t put his finger on it.

Tony turned to the clock on the wall and sighed. He really should go to bed, maybe after some shut-eye, he could figure out what the heck Vlad Masters deal was and figure out how Daniel Fenton and Phantom were connected. Tomorrow he could try and set up a way to spend time with Daniel, maybe even offer up an internship or something else that Masters would buy into…

Hot coffee was suddenly spilled all over him and he screeched. In front of him was dum-e impossibly looking at him apologetically.

“What the heck!” Tony yelled at the robot, “Why did you do that!”

“Sorry, sir,” dum-e’s head tilted down, “Bedtime protocol failed.”

“I ought to use you as scrap parts!” Tony sighed, guess it was time for bed.

* * *

Peter tossed and turned in his Star Wars decorated sheets. The side closest to the wall made him feel trapped like tons of concrete was creaking and about to fall on top of him, but being so close to the edge made him feel like he was seconds away from plummeting to his death into some murky river.

The boy groaned and gave up on the promise of sleep. It was not happening tonight. Instead, he crept over to his desk and pulled his phone off of the charger, and got on Twitter. He didn’t know what he was planning to find, but he began browsing for anything Phantom-related. There were multiple tweets about how he was a menace and just caused property damage, while others went and praised him. There were a few fangirl pages with blurry pictures of the ghost flying around and a few that had made drawings of him. Peter laughed, Phantom had his own fan base and the drawings of him in coffee shops and the occasional maid dress made him choke. Thankfully, he had not come across some obscure drawings of himself in a maid dress or maybe there were some, but Mr. Stark had found them first and took them down forever. 

After scrolling for a while he came across a promising account. The username was @therealghostkid and there were multiple tweets of warnings of areas not to go into because of fighting or because of property damage, some were pictures of a night sky taken at impossible heights for it to be a human, and then there were some selfies of Phantom himself with a ghost chasing after him or him mocking one. The captions were equally as funny. Soon, Peter found himself struggling to contain the laughter from the puns and jokes Phantom used as captions or things he said in his videos. 

Phantom was really funny, like too funny for someone that was dead.

The smile fell with the realization. Peter knew from the start what Phantom was. He was a ghost and that meant he used to be alive at some point and probably had a family and friends and a life, but now he was dead. Did he even remember being alive? Does he remember what he did when he was alive? More importantly, Peter wanted to know how Phantom always seemed so calm about it. The constant dead jokes had been funny until Peter stopped to think about it. Phantom mentioned it a lot and to anyone else, they may think of it as an easy go-to punchline. For Peter, it seemed like it hurt. As the only reason for the excessive death jabs was because Phantom was still hurt about it or couldn't accept it, and he just turned it into a joke. He understood, he used the same tactics for himself. If it’s funny, then it can’t be that bad right?

Peter bit his lip and switched over to his own Spider-Man account. It was similar to Phantoms in the way he alerted people what areas had high crime rates and to be safe, but he posted pictures of skylines while hanging from crazy angles.

Peter frowned, what was he even thinking. Phantom was cool, but based on his Twitter he became inactive. It was weird, around the same time he stopped posting funny pictures and alerts was the time where he disappeared from Amity Park. Did something happen? Would Phantom even take the time to check his Twitter to see some random kids tweet? Was doing this just going to make him look more stupid than he already did swinging around New York?

He shook his head, even if the ghost didn’t answer it wouldn’t change how he felt about him. Phantom was a good guy and nothing would change that.

_@therealghostkid_ _thanks for all the help lately, appreciate seeing a new face that doesn’t want to kill me._

Not even a minute later and Peter’s phone went off. He scrambled to unlock it and stared dumbfounded. He actually responded! 

The tweet simply said,  _ @realspidey anytime it’s nice knowing not all spiders are that creepy-crawly _

Peter laughed,  _ @therealghostkid you just haven't seen my six other limbs yet, don't worry _

_ @realspidey please no, if there is anything I fear more than toast it is spiders. _

_ @therealghostboy ...Toast scares you? _

_ @realspidey don’t invoke the dark lord's name...oh wait that's Voldemort.  _

Peter laughed and spent the rest of the night responding and making jokes with Phantom not even noticing the number of retweets and others making their own comments on the two heroes talking back and forth.

When Peter woke up the next morning, he couldn’t help the shy smile that crept on his face when he saw _ #SpideyandPhantomRsuperfriends  _ was the most trending hashtag on Twitter.

* * *

Good PR was hard to come by for anyone that had some kind of influential power in the world, but Tony definitely thought he had it the worst. No matter what he did someone was always complaining about his playboy days, or something Ironman said or did, or if he accidentally didn't wave at one person in a sea of people waving at him. It didn’t matter if he would go and kiss every baby on the entire planet, there would always be that one person to say something bad, and then everyone else would jump on the hate Tony Stark bandwagon.

So, waking up to see Peter Parker and another boy he had just met get more good PR than he ever had in his entire life was a bitter pill to swallow. Of course, he got over it as he started to read the tweets between the two from the previous night. With the little jokes and light humor, it was no wonder that the two exploded as they did. It was just Peter being Peter and then Phantom being whoever he was.

Tony turned to the clock on the wall, he had slept in and had been on his phone all morning that he hadn’t realized it was getting close to two in the afternoon. Soon, Vlad Masters would be back along with Daniel and he was going to have to find a way to talk to the boy without the older man's ears listening to every word.

He placed his phone down and went to get ready. Today was the day. He was going to get some answers.

* * *

At four o’clock sharp Vlad Masters sauntered into the room, back and head held high as he entered. Behind him, Daniel Fenton barely drug his feet across the carpet and pulled at the tie around his throat making it slowly fall apart. The man shot the boy with a glare as he continued to mess with the tie and cufflinks on his wrist and from the look, Danny stopped and kept his eyes on his lap.

Tony frowned, here was yet another version of this Daniel that made it seem impossible for him and Phantom to be the same. It was almost as if Daniel was trying to make himself look as small and unnoticeable as possible sitting in front of him and beside Vlad Masters. He kept his head down low, but even from the downcast angle, he could see the deep bags under the boy's eyes. 

“Thank you for being so flexible about this meeting,” Tony leaned back into his chair, “I know these past few days have been quite hectic and it probably was not what you were expecting.”

Vlad nodded and continued on about the unexpected activity in New York, but Tony wasn't truly listening. He would nod his head in points that required it and let out a short laugh to keep him appeased. What Tony was focused on was the young boy sitting beside him. Daniel had finally put his head up, but his eyes were trained on nothing in particular. The dark bags that he had seen earlier were just worse now that the boy was not looking down. A nasty blue bruise barely peaked over the collar of his suit. It must have been hidden before Daniel had messed with the tie.

“Anyways,” Vlad cleared his throat, “Back down to business hm?”

Tony stole another glance at Daniel before continuing, “Yes. Unfortunately, I am going to have to turn down your offer.”

Vlad sputtered, “What? Why? You need all the resources in order to stop these malicious beings. You have nothing to go off on-”

“Actually I do,” Tony shrugged, “It’s official Avengers business so I can't disclose any of it, but we now have something to go off of.”

“Also,” Tony turned to Daniel, “I’d like to offer an internship for your godson.”

Finally, Daniel focused on Tony and raised his eyebrow. Before the boy could say anything Vlad interrupted, “Absolutely not! Perhaps it would be different if we became business partners, but I don't even know you Stark. That is absurd beyond belief. Why-”

“Sure.” Danny shrugged. If Vlad got an ulcer from the thought of him not being by him all the time and staying in that god forbid mansion for a few weeks, then the eventually ass-kicking would be worth it. Just to see that flustered look on the man. Besides, what was the worst that could happen. Other than Tony Stark realizing that he was actually a C-average student and was basically a hermit. Having the opportunity to get away from Vlad was the only incentive he needed.

“Daniel,” Vlad turned to him, his eyes telling him to stop talking, “We should discuss this properly first.”

Danny was never really one to listen to anybody, let alone Vlad Masters.

“Meh,” Danny leaned back in his chair, a ghost of a smile on his lips, “I’m good with it. Sounds interesting, besides I really did not want to go to Japan with you for a whole month.”

Vlad's eye twitched and Danny gave him a wink. Seeing the man try to suppress his range was hilarious. Danny knew that he was in the clear, even if he was technically under Vlads care, who would pass up on an internship from the smartest man on Earth? Vlad couldn’t, it would just raise suspicions. He had won this battle.

Vlad cleared his throat, “Hmm, as soon as I am back from my trip, I expect to see you back at home,  _ Daniel. _ ”

Danny could barely hide the snort that crept up his throat. He covered the laugh with a small cough into his elbow, but a chuckle still managed to get out. Vlad turned away from him back to the genius and continued talking calmly, but the older man's grip on the arm of the chair did not get past him. His knuckles were stark white from the force at which he held on.

Tony turned back to the boy, “Why don’t you stay here for a second, and after I show out Mr. Masters I’ll show you some of the labs.”

Danny gave a curt nod, “See you in a few weeks Vladdie.”

Vlad returned the gesture with a fake smile and hugged the boy. He leaned in close to his ear and whispers, “Do not think for one second that you will get away with this little badger.”

Danny patted his back, “Wouldn’t dream of it for the world.”

Then Vlad stood up and smiled, “Have fun and don’t cause Mr. Stark any trouble now Little Badger,” and then promptly ruffled Danny’s hair.

Danny tried to ignore the wince that wanted to make itself known. Vlad knew that was the exact spot on his head that the man continued to bash into a brick wall yesterday after his fight with Aragon. He watched as the pair left and shut the door behind him. As soon as the door closed Danny ripped the tie around his neck off and slouched in the seat. His body was beyond sore and had not healed properly yet. Thankfully, all of those broken bones had healed, but now he was left with nasty bruises decorating almost every inch of his body, not to mention the three long claw marks still decorating his chest. Those would take a few days to fully heal and the boy could only hope that the odd paranormal activity in New York would start to die down.

The boy gingerly held his chest and stared out the windows. He was confused, why had Tony Stark offered an internship to him of all people. Surely it wasn’t just because he was with Vlad. The man had to have looked into him and seen his not-so-stellar grades and attendance. So why? It made no sense as to why the billionaire offered an internship. Was it because of his parents? Did Tony Stark really believe what he said about knowing things? Or did he really have some new outside information about ghosts? The latter was rare, there was no one that had as much useful information on ghosts as Vlad and his parents. 

Yeah, his parents would have eaten up an opportunity to work with Tony Stark. His dad would go on and on about his first Ironman suit. It was that design that even inspired the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton. If only they were still around, then maybe they would have been able to have this opportunity. If only he was faster. If he would have pushed himself just a bit more then he would have made it. If he was better then he wouldn’t have frozen from the sight of tons of concrete piled upon them. If he had just pushed his fear aside and raced in to grab them all then maybe they would still be here today If-

“Alright kid,” Tony walked into the room, “Now, I think it’s best if you and I had a little chat before I show you too much around here.”

Danny straightened his posture and grimaced from the quick movement. He turned to Tony frowning. Why was he staring at him like that? Eyebrows crossed and studied him hard. It was like he was trying to figure something out, but what? He had never even met the man in this form, and there was no way he could have figured out he was Phantom. That would be absurd, no one would believe in a half-dead- half-alive kid existence.

Tony locked the door behind him, “Is that okay Daniel, or should I say  _ Phantom _ ?”

* * *

Loki was confused. Every occurrence he had with Phantom left him more confused than the last. The ghost defied everything he had ever come to know about their species and how they worked. Ghosts were supposed to be beings of great power but were limited to their own realm, Hel. They were not supposed to be able to maintain their forms on Midgard. Their physiology was just not able to support itself in this realm. They needed the energy created in Hel to keep their cores working and keep them stable. Phantom disproved that fact easily and the two other ghosts had no problems keeping their forms and even displaying their powers on Midgard. 

Then there was the issue in how Phantom acted. From his previous knowledge, ghosts were supposed to act on their obsessions to a fault. That was supposed to be what guided their actions. For Technus, it was clear that he had some whimsical idea of taking over the world with the aid of electronics and for the dragon likewise minus the aid of electronics. Yet, Phantom did not seem to act out on an obsession. He was not a mindless being acting on instincts that stemmed deep inside of him. He fought against his own kind, a feat that confused Loki even more than he already was.

“Brother,” Thor walked into the room, “What is wrong?”

Loki turned away from the large window looming over other buildings, “Just thinking about Phantom. There is something that I can not quite wrap my head around.”

Thor sat down and the coach and rubbed his chin, “Hmm, he was out of character from everything we know about Hel.”

Loki nodded and took a seat across from his brother. Even now, despite making amends with Thor, Loki wished he could still steal the throne. He believed in his heart that he would make the better king. He wanted to feel that power. That was one reason why he was so drawn to the Tesseract. The promise of power that it held drew him in until it was too late and his own freedom of thought was stripped away. He was lustful for more power. 

_ ‘You will never be my king! I will not accept it!’ _

_ Loki watched from afar, his head cocked in interest from the dragon's statement. That was another layer of concern. If this ghost was the king, then he could be of greater use to him. He could turn the boy to his will, make him see how he does. _

_ ‘I’m not a king.’ The boy’s face contorted as if disgusted by the thought of being king. _

_ The ghost below him cackled, ‘Even now, you push away the promise of power...pathetic.’ _

Loki pursed his lips. It was uncommon for anyone to push away that power. Ghosts were known to be lustful for gaining power and yet, Phantom seemed disgusted by it. That boy continued to confuse the trickster with every encounter.

“What is it, brother?” Thor leaned onto his knees, “You look like you have connected something.”

“No, I haven’t,” Loki crossed his leg, “I must ask, do you recall hearing anything about a new ruler in Hel? Perhaps our lovely sister said something about a successor of sorts?”

Thor raised an eyebrow, “What an odd question brother, but no I do not remember Hela speaking of anyone to take her place.”

Loki nodded and turned back to the large window. 

Interesting, a ghost pushing away the promise of power. For now, he would keep silent. Perhaps there was some way he could use that bit of information to his advantage down the road.

* * *

_ Get away. Get away. Get away. _

Danny didn’t slow down even when the heavens decided to open up and let the water gates loose. 

_ What are your intentions here, Phantom?   
_

Danny should have known. He was stupid, stupid, stupid. How did he expect to fool Tony Stark of all people?

_ By now I bet you understand what’s going on. Gotta say, I’m impressed no one else has figured it out, but I guess the other Avengers aren’t known to have more than two working brain cells. _

Faster, faster, faster. 

Danny knew what this meant. He knew that wondrous look he saw in Tony Stark's eyes. It was the one where they would do anything for the sake of science. The one where they would strap him onto some lab table and open him up and poke and prod and find out what made him tick.

_ Why don’t you explain what’s going on here? _

He should have known that they would see him as nothing more than a monster. He was a ghost for crying out loud. Ghosts were scary and caused havoc everywhere they went. He should have known that despite everything he did, people would not accept him. 

So, Danny ran away. Or rather, he flew away as fast as he could.

The boy didn’t stop as the rain continued to pour. It didn’t matter anyway. He was dead. What was a little rain going to do to someone that didn’t have to breathe oxygen half the time? So what if his chest was starting to pound like a thumping heartbeat due to his injuries? He was dead, ghosts weren’t supposed to feel pain. 

He was dead. A soulless dead decaying body that got kicks off of fighting his own fellow undead companions. Nothing mattered. It wasn’t like he had a family to go back to now. They were all dead too. Except for none of them were tied down to this world like him.

Tears mixed with rainwater clouding his vision and the next moment he ate concrete. Danny slid down the wall landing in a puddle of water. White rings washed over his corpse leaving him as Danny Fenton. Stupid orphan Danny Fenton. He pulled at his hair. Why was it so unfair? Why couldn’t anyone just accept him? He just wanted to help! That was it! Why did everyone believe that he had to have some ulterior motive?

He couldn’t go running back to Vlad, not when he finally got some free time away from the man. There was no way he would be returning back to Stark Industries, he was not going to end up someone’s midafternoon lab fantasy. Danny put his head down, he could try going to the ghost zone, maybe even indulge in his’ lair of sorts. There had to be some room in that castle that did not give him nightmares of Pariah Dark and dying all the way. Maybe he could even find refuge with Frostbite, the ghost had become an ally of his and maybe they would allow him to stay there. Or he could try cryptic Clockwork, despite the ghost's harsh appearances, he was quite enjoyable to be around. 

He threw his head against the concrete wall and winced at the contact. His head was still killing him and now his chest too. Carefully, Danny lifted his shirt and winced at the sight. Dried green ectoplasm was mixing with fresh bright red blood. The impact must have reopened the wound. He tugged the shirt back down and laid his legs out. The cold rain had no effect on him despite being in his humanoid half. He was always running a bit colder than normal, but it made sense since he was dead.

Danny opened his palms in front of him, a haunted look in his eyes.

_ You should be dead. _

* * *

Playing the bad cop should not have been Tony’s go-to. There were so many better options that would have worked and expressed how he felt better about the situation, but of course, that is not what he did. He went straight after Phantom, calling him out, saying the Avengers were watching him, and demanding his intentions. He didn’t even get in,  _ thanks for saving our asses kid  _ before the said kid was scrambling to run away in a fear-induced haze. And he couldn’t blame the kid. If someone were to put him in the spotlight like that then he would have run like Hell to get away too.

Now, Tony sat buried in a stack of papers that Pepper needed his immediate attention to read and sign off on. Apparently, just having someone else forge his signature and perhaps deal with consequences later was not acceptable. Hours scraped by, only the sounds of heavy rain and the clicking of the pen passing the time. 

Sometime later, the door opened and Happy walked in looking displeased like always, “Boss, you might wanna take a look at this.”

Happy handed his phone to Tony and he just stared at the screen. Multiple videos and random pictures of New Yorkers finding Phantom while he helped out by doing random tasks. There was one with Phantom levitating an old lady's groceries while he helped her cross the street. Another where he got a cat out of a tree, Phantom pushing some kids on a swing, and even helping out a group of kids with homework. Tony clicked on the last video and let it play.

A group of kids was all staring up at Phantom in amazement questions flying off their tongues, but Phantom interrupted them by picking up a textbook.

“What even is this?” He said, confused.

One of the kids groaned, “We have a space science test in a few days and this stuff is impossible to remember!”

Danny raised an eyebrow as the kids continued talking as he flipped through the pages and then interrupted them again, “What's so hard to remember?”

“All the names of the constellations!” A boy cried and dropped his head to the table, “It’s impossible!”

Phantom raised a brow, “Maybe I could help?”

The kids all looked up to him in wonder and immediately began asking him questions.

“Well, what’s this one?”

“Easy, that one is Eridanus.”

“What about this one?”

“Delphinus, duh.”

“This one!”

“Andromeda.”

“Uhh, what about this one?”

  
“Come one give me a harder one, that’s Ursa Major.”

The questions kept coming, every time Phantom answering with ease as if it were second nature.

Tony turned the video off and selected another. A group of high schoolers crowded him all yelling out questions. Phantom put a hand up and laughed, “Alright, alright, I’ll answer one. You in the back!”

The camera turned to a girl in the back blushing as she pushed her glasses up further on her nose, “Well, Mr. Phantom I was wondering did it hurt?”

The camera zoomed back in on Phantom obviously confused, “Did what hurt? And if you're going to say when I fell from Heaven, please spare me.”

The camera remained on Phantom but the girl spoke again, quieter this time, “I mean...Did it hurt when you died?”

Phantom frowned, but quickly laughed it off, “No, I assume death by buttered toast is a pretty universally peaceful death for everybody.”

And chaos ensued. The kids kept asking questions if that was how he actually died and what really happened. For each question, Phantom came up with a unique response to each one.

“I should have listened to my mom when she told me to eat my vegetables.”

“Ever heard of the Salem Witch trials?”

“Funny story, you know in the cartoons when someone slips on a banana peel?”

“It all started as a harmless hotdog eating contest…”

“Moral of this story, do not try to stand up to a grizzly bear.”

And the excuses continued going on until Phantom bid a hastily adieu and flew away.

Tony turned the phone off and handed it back to Happy. Even after grilling the kid and making him run away he went around and helped people, even if it was just to put a smile on some random person's face. There was no way for him to gain anything with what he was doing. Daniel was simply doing it because he was a good person, no matter what he was. 

“Don’t you have something to do?” Tony said, “People to fire, paperwork, hitting on underoos aunt…”

Happy’s face became beet red and he stumbled, “What! I was just showing you-”

“Yeah, and you did,” Tony waved his hand flippantly, “Now get lost, I got work to do.”

The other man grumbled and slammed the door behind him. Tony, not wasting a second longer, pulled his own phone out and pulled up Twitter. In an instant, he found Phantom’s page and pulled up the messenger. His fingers hovered over the keypad. What was he supposed to say? Hey kid, sorry for scaring you half to death, but I’d love to sit down and chat with you about what you are. No. That was ridiculous. If saying what he did before made the kid run away with his tail between his legs, then this would just ensure he would never see Phantom's face again. 

_ Hey kid, I wasn’t trying to scare you earlier. Came off worse than I intended, I’m sorry. _

_ Could we forget about the whole bad cop situation and start over again? Hi, I’m Tony Stark and I’d like very much to sit down and talk to you like a normal civilian. _

Tony stared at the screen, guilt gnawing at him. He shouldn’t even expect a response. He had done nothing to show Phantom that he was on his side and believed he was good. It was all his fault, everything was set up to run as smoothly as possible and, like always, he managed to find a way to screw it all up with a few words.

Tony’s phone vibrated and he was on it in an instant, eyes glued to the words across the screen.

_ Hey, I’m Danny. Depends, what's in it for me? _

_ How do a talk and some freshly brewed coffee sound? _

_ Best be black like my soul. _

Tony chuckled, after watching those videos, there was nothing in the world to convince him that Phantom had a stone-cold heart resting in his chest.

_ Only freshly squeezed milk from the cow is for you then. _

_ Cookies? Your treat of course. _

_ And a sweet new computer set up for this internship. _

Once again, another laugh escaped him. 

_ You got it. It’ll be set up and ready to go in your room before you get here. _

The boy didn’t respond right away and it made Tony nervous. Did he say something wrong? How did he manage to mess up twice with the kid? Apparently, he did not even have to look a person in the eyes to make them want to run away and never speak to him again. A couple of minutes later, his phone went off and Tony was reading back the response.

_ Can we talk tomorrow, kinda tired? Just wanna sleep and think about all this. _

_ Naturally, I’ll send you your info in a few and you can crash. Talking can wait. _

_ Thanks. _

Tony sat his phone back down on the desk and sighed. He had his second chance now. He couldn’t blow it again or he would never hear from Phantom or Daniel ever again. His head swam with questions. What should he even start with? There were so many things he was confused about. Namely, the whole seemingly alive, but also the fact that he was a ghost at the same time. How does that even work? Was he a ghost, or was he a human? Tony needed to be able to ask his questions without sounding like he was going down on him or anything. It needed to be an open and understanding chat. One where the boy felt safe and welcome instead of scared. 

Before any of that could be dealt with though, he had a higher priority to attend with.

Someone needed to get that boy a crazy computer set up now.

* * *

Vlad Masters was a spiteful man who knew what he wanted and how he wanted to achieve it. When something got in his way, he simply removed it by whatever means possible. It was easy for him, a powerful half-ghost hybrid with deep business ties. However, all that power of his was useless when another headstrong teenaged half-ghost pushed against everything he had ever said or did.

The man yelled and swiped the various beakers and weapons off of the table onto the floor. The things he would do to that boy...For every time he had spoiled his plans. For every time he wriggled his way into something far above his brain to comprehend. Beating the boy senseless never seemed to work, although it did give release to some of the deep frustration he held against him. 

Behind the man, his ghost portal opened, and out floated a large mechanical ghost.

“Plasmius.” It stated simply.

Vlad growled, “What is it, Skulker. Can you not see that I am busy!”

The ghost flew closer to the man despite his anger, “I am sorry, but I figured you would like to know some of the rumors floating around the Ghost Zone.”

The man turned, “What rumors?”

Vlad Masters was a man who knew of all. There were not supposed to be any rocks unturned. He knew of everything going on so that he always had a way to spin it to his own favor in the end.

“The ghost child is due to rule three realms in the Ghost Zone.”

“What?” Vlad clenched his fists, “What do you mean  _ rule? _ ”

Skulker sighed, “I do not know what changed, but as you know the child did defeat Pariah Dark, and that gives him the duty to fulfill his role. The Far Frozen had always praised him and made him out to be some martyr. Frostbite has said once before and has not retracted his statement for following Danny Phantom to the ends of the universe. Then there is Aragon’s palace. Phantom has defeated him countless times and his weaker sister wants to give the kingdom to Phantom.”

Vlad chuckled to himself. Daniel, a king? How idiotic. That boy did not have the backbone to lead an entire realm of creatures that hated him. Who would follow someone that was not even a pure ghost, let alone a ghost that constantly fought them and sent them back to Hel? Then again, Daniel would ignore the facts and deny all allegations of him being king. He would simply take a pass on all that power he could yield. No, what the ghost zone needed was a strong leader, one that was willing to do whatever it took for his cause. That was Vlad Masters. He fit all the qualifications. He had the power, the willpower, and the ties to make sure no one would dare defy him. Even if Daniel were to try and stop him, there was nothing he could do against an army of ghosts that wanted to see his head on a platter. 

“Thank you, Skulker,” Vlad rummaged around in a drawer, “That is very interesting, the boy may be of use to me still.”

After pushing away various blueprints, Vlad found the one he was looking for and laid it out on the table. Menacing claws were drawn meticulously. A powerful weapon capable of extracting one's ghost half from their human. The effect on that being would cause a painful death, but it was a small price that Vlad was more than willing to pay for the promise of power.

“Let’s get to work, hmm?”


	4. Coffee and Contemplation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I am so sorry about the time it took me to get my shit together to make this chapter. Life has really been kicking my ass lately and the fact that this chapter just continuously frustrated me by not wanting to be written just really got to me. Other than that...I AM BLOWN AWAY by everyone that has enjoyed this and even left kudos. You guys don't understand how happy it makes me to see that people actually like this. It legit makes my day, so without further adieu, here is the next chapter and I hope you guys continue to enjoy it.

Tony watched as the hours passed by.

Ten o’clock. Eleven o’clock. Twelve. One. Two.

By two-thirty in the afternoon, Tony was convinced that Daniel had decided last night that he was not to be trusted no matter what he said or did and never took up the offer of a nice warm bed to sleep in.

_ Do ghosts even need sleep? _

The man shook his head and sipped on his coffee. Right now the last thing he needed was more questions that he feared would never get answered.

A loud yawn brought Tony’s focus back to where he was at. In front of him, Daniel drug his feet and rubbed his face tiredly moving on autopilot to the smell of coffee. Tony watched as the boy grabbed the full pot and mug without a second glance and slid into a seat in front of him already pouring himself a cup.

_ Well, I guess they drink coffee. _

Tony watched bemused as Daniel chugged the first cup and immediately poured a second. Not even a minute went by and Daniel had drunk the second cup then moving onto his third next.

He chuckled, “Tired Daniel?”

Daniel raised a brow, “No, I’m dead.”

And just like that, there was that nagging empty feeling in Tony’s stomach again. This was a child. This was someone's child that had died, but no one knew. Daniel Fenton was dead. For how long? Did his family know? It didn’t matter because they were dead, but when they were alive...Did they know that their son was a ghost?

“Oh, and call me Danny,” the boy finished his third cup.

Tony continued staring forward in horror. He thought he could do this. He was positive that he had accepted the fact that he was talking to a dead child. A dead child that risked his life for people he didn't even know. The similarities between him and Peter...It made his stomach roll. If a kid like Daniel Fenton could die and still risk his life, what did that say for Peter? If anything happened to him, it would be Tony’s fault and the man could not live with that burden on his shoulders. 

Danny’s eyes widened at the realization of Tony’s blank stare and he chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck, “Sorry, a force of habit, but you can laugh. I guess if I was going to be correct though I should have said half-dead.” Danny shrugged and poured yet another cup of coffee.

“Half-dead?” Tony said.

“Yup,” Danny replied.

Tony’s head spun. How could someone be half dead? It was one or the other. There was no possible way to be alive yet dead at the same time, right? It was just absurd. To live one has to have a beating heart-thumping proudly in their chest. To live is to take another breath to provide oxygen for the brain. To be alive was to be alive and that was all. 

“Not to be rude, but,” Tony sighed, “How can you be half dead?”

Danny shrugged again, “Don’t really know the specifics, but it’s not the craziest shit I’ve seen before so I’ve just been rolling with it.”

Tony leaned back in his chair confused. He could not wrap his head around the fact that someone could be half-dead and half-alive at the same time. But, the boy did raise a point, he has definitely seen and heard crazier things than this. But at the same time, did anything he had ever seen before comparing to this scientific revelation that it was possible to be a living breathing human and simultaneously be a cold dead ghost at the same time?

The man swallowed. His tongue grew heavy in his mouth from the question burning to come forth. His stomach took a sick turn at the thought, but he had to know. The question would continuously haunt him if he did not know.

“When?” Tony whispered.

Tony turned to face the boy and wanted to take everything back from the look of confusion. He did not want to explain. The thought of asking when the boy died made unwanted feelings rise inside of him. He did not want to know. He did not need to know the answer, but curiosity poked at him, and would not relent until he knew. 

He gulped, “When...When did you die?”

Danny's eyes lowered and the pit inside of Tony’s stomach grew.

“Three years ago,” Danny sat his cup down, his attention solely on Tony, “When I was fourteen.”

Fourteen. Danny Fenton died-no half-died at the age of fourteen. Even Peter did not don the stupid onesie until he was fifteen, but he assumed the one more year of innocent life did not truly compare in the scheme of things. Danny Fenton had died when he was only fourteen years old, which meant that he should have been starting high school around the time. The boy did not even get to experience any sense of normalcy in his youth. Tragedy struck and had killed any normalcy that could have followed.

Danny Fenton had stared death in the face and he lost partly.

“What happened?” Tony exhaled while rubbing a hand on his chin, “How did you die?”

Danny’s look soured, “Ya know, it’s actually really rude to ask that.”

Tony scoffed, “You didn’t seem to mind that yesterday when you were talking to all those kids.”

Danny closed his eyes, “Yeah, well people don’t get it and they are humans. Curious and known to stick their nose where it doesn't belong. I didn’t really say how died either, did I?”

“I don’t know about you,” Danny crossed his arms, “But, for one, I don’t really like to unpack all those memories. Not very pleasant.”

Tony’s mind began to wander back to the sight of Phantom. The suit he wore. It definitely was not some kind of armor and he was almost positive it was not some ghostly material. He remembered feeling the rubbery texture when Phantom had first shown up and saved his life. It was definitely a rubbery material, but why would he choose such an unforgiving suit to wear, certainly he knew that there were better things that could protect him. Hell, a pair of jeans and a hoodie would do better.

Jack and Madeline Fenton. They were paranormal ghost hunters slash scientists. He remembered reading several reports on work they had done and he had to give them credit. The research they collected was all well put together and the science behind it was not bogus. He remembered the silly bright orange and blue hazmat suits they both wore in every picture they took. Lab safety suits, a smart choice. The rubber from those suits would protect them from possible electric shocks and countless other things. He remembered reading an inside report on what caused them to don the hazmat look. Their greatest project yet: A portal to another realm where ghosts resided. The electrical wiring and electricity that the machine would use could cause severe harm, but the suits were worn to combat that…

The same type of hazmat suit that Danny wore.

Something had gone wrong. The suit did not work.

Maybe...Maybe the Fentons were not so good as they were meant out to be? The duo seemed immersed in their work, but were they so immersed to forget about their own children? Or worse, use them in their work to test things?

Was is like Hydra, who used innocent children to run tests and experiments to perfect their soldiers. Were they that twisted and cruel?

Tony felt like he was going to throw up.

“Did…” Tony gulped pushing the bile down, “Did someone do this to you? Did...Did someone experiment on you?”

Tony prayed he was wrong. If what he had just put together was the truth then he was going to lose everything he had eaten in the past month.

Danny was quick to respond, “No, it was my fault.”

The unhinged panic rising throughout Tony eased a bit, but Danny was not finished.

“Although,” Danny's eyes looked past him like he was reminded of something else, “I’ve had my fair share of close calls with a scalpel an inch deep into my chest to know that it is not pleasant.”

Just like that, the panic began to slowly swell through him.

He went back to brainstorming. Something had to have happened, he must have read something somewhere about an accident of some sorts. It was not like someone could just half-way die and no one would notice. Was there an accident that got reported? A news story where someone got run over…

The ghost portal. He remembered the amount of electricity that it produced. He remembered the video where Jack Fenton boasted of how they could not seem to get it to work and after giving up and taking a break. Yet, on that same day when they had gone back to check on the lab, it was working. He had called it a miracle and said that the machine just needed time to get started. But what if it hadn’t. What if...What if someone else had gotten it to work. 

What if, inadvertently, Jack and Madeline Fenton had gotten their son killed without knowing?

“Your parents did this to you,” Tony stated.

Danny’s eyes widened and Tony knew it was true.

“No!” Danny growled, “Stop talking.”

“Danny,” Tony leaned across from the table, “Did your parents kill you?”

Tears glistened in the boy’s eyes, “No! I was the stupid one and did it! Now stop talking about them or..Or else I will leave. I swear to God I will right now.”

Tony leaned back in his chair, he already got the answer he needed to know. Danny Fenton’s parents, without even knowing about it, had killed their son. Their so-called greatest creation came with the price of their son's life. He wondered if the Fentons knew about this? Would they care? Or would they just be proud of what they accomplished despite the loss of their child's youth?

A few deep breaths later, Danny sunk back into his seat head low, “Please, just stop...Some things are better left unsaid.”

Tony rubbed his chin, there were still so many questions left unanswered between the two, but it would have to wait. He did not know if he was ready for any more revelations that would cause his stomach to turn and anxiety would course up his spine.

“Sir,” Friday announced, “Captain Rogers has requested to speak with you urgently.”

The man glowered at the ceiling. The old man seriously had the worst timing.

“It’s fine, go,” Danny stood up, “I’ll still be here later, go have some fun talking to your ex-boyfriend.”

With that, Danny took the pot and mug and disappeared back into the room he was given leaving Tony sitting alone in the kitchen.

“Be right there Fri,” Tony replied as he pushed his chair in and walked to the elevator across the hall.

Before entering the elevator, Tony scoffed as he looked at where Danny was currently, “He is  _ not _ my boyfriend.”

* * *

“Tony, I know you aren’t happy about all of this, but we have to talk about it.”

Tony ignored the supersoldier tailing him. Even after all these years of knowing him, Steve Rogers doubted his ability to push anything that he did not want to acknowledge and accept. He guessed that’s what happened to everybody that had been betrayed by one of the people they trusted.

“Tony,” Steve said, “ _ Tony _ , listen to me!” The man grabbed Tony’s arm, stopping him in place.

The man did not turn around and let Steve just hold his arm. Anger rose, but he managed to keep it down. The last thing he needed now was to be in a constant fight with Rogers along with the arrival of a certain person on the way.

He was tired. Tired of fighting something that no matter how much evidence he proved that bringing Bucky Barnes into the Avengers was a bad idea. It didn’t matter that he was a killer. A man that was captured and brainwashed to do whatever Hydra pleased at a word moment. It didn’t matter that he had killed Tony’s parents and Steve knew but didn’t tell him in fear of what he would do to his childhood friend. 

“Tony, come on. You know we have to talk about him coming here. Everyone knows you don’t agree.” Steve finally let go but walked to face Tony.

The man scoffed, he could not stand to look at the soldier in his eyes. He was so hypocritical that it physically pained him.

“Wel, if everyone already knows how I feel, then there is nothing to discuss,” Tony shrugged and went to move around Steve, but the soldier blocked his way.

“Bucky will be here today,” Steve sighed, “I need to make sure you kill him the second he shows up.”

He laughed, Steve actually thought he would go crazy at the sight and send an entire drone strike on Bucky Barnes. The thought had crossed his mind, but it wasn’t like he was going to act out on it no matter how good the idea sounded in his head. 

“Don’t worry, I keep my distance, he keeps his,” Tony pushed past Steve, “It’s a big building, I won't have to look at him.”

“Tony, you know that you both will have to eventually though,” Steve called, “We are a team. We have to talk in order to work together.”

Tony scoffed again. Again the captain went with that team bullshit. Where was that team mentality during the accords? The fight that paralyzed James Rhodes? Siberia? What was that? Where was that team mentality? Steve Rogers dropped everything about a team when he decided that some old man that was Hydra’s hitman was more important than anyone else on the team. 

“You can save that team bullshit for someone else Rogers,” Tony glared darkly at the man, “This ‘team’ broke when you decided you were above the law.”

“Tones, come on,” Steve sighed.

Tony’s anger surged. Hot flaming rage taking over every bit of his being.

He shoved a finger to the man's chest and spat, “Do not call me that. You lost any and all privilege of calling me that after you ditched everyone here to nurse a sociopath Back to life and leaving me for dead in Siberia.”

With that, Tony continued walking away and Steve did not follow. 

* * *

“He is so cool guys! Like the coolest! Phantom even made puns with me! It was awesome, I mean yeah it was super scary that a  _ ghost dragon _ was causing mass panic, but it was so awesome too!”

Ned and Michele shared a glance and nodded along with Peter as he went on and on about the new super ghost. They were supposed to be studying for a decathlon event, but Peter simply couldn’t focus. He still had so many things to tell his friends about the ghost and he couldn’t contain his excitement.

“I wonder where he even goes when stuff isn’t happening,” Peter turned to his window frowning, “Does he have a home? How does a ghost get an apartment in New York or even a lease for a house? Oh! What if he has some cool lair thing he chills out in? I bet it’s full of all kinds of things he’s collected over the years since he’s like crazy old.”

Michele handed Ned a box of gushers, they were going to be here for a while. Ned graciously took it and nodded along with Peter’s ramblings.

Peter pulled his phone out and sighed, he was hoping that he would get some news about the ghost. Maybe something was going to happen and he could help him again or maybe they would have some witty banter on Twitter again. 

“If he’s so cool, then why don’t you ask him to hang out?” Ned offered while chewing on his food.

Peter whipped his head towards his friend's eyes comically wide, “No! What if he’s doing super important ghost stuff! Anyways that’s embarrassing, why would some super cool ancient ghost want to hang out with a kid like me.”

Michele huffed, “What’s the worst that could happen? He says no?”

“Yeah.” Ned shrugged and turned back to Peter, “Dude, you’re literally Spider-Man, you are the coolest guy ever. A random dead guy isn’t going to change that.”

“Ned! That’s rude!” Peter held his phone close to his chest. 

“I stand by what I said as your guy in the chair.”

Michele raised her hand and deadpanned, “I second that.”

Peter shook his head. He couldn’t believe his friends sometimes. He wondered why they even put up with him sometimes with his antics and extracurriculars, and now disrespecting the deceased? That was too much, even if the ghost wasn’t nice. It didn’t seem wise to not give respect to them.

“Peter, you are a superhero so put in your big boy panties and just ask the guy to hang out,” Michele grabbed the box of gushers back from Ned and laid on the bed.

“Well,” Peter sank into his chair, “What’s if he’s busy or doesn’t even want to hang out with me?”

“You will never know if you don’t ask Parker,” She said with a mouth full of gushers.

Peter laid his phone on the desk, he did really want to hang out with Phantom… It would be awesome to have someone around his age or well, looking to be around his age to hang out with. Maybe they could bond over the whole teenaged superhero gig. Besides, it would be awesome to have someone that was a superhero to be friends with and Phantom was cool. He wasn't strung up in some superhero drama that made him tied down with a group. He was a free spirit and helped out because he wanted to. 

But he was probably busy doing whatever he did when he wasn't helping others. Maybe he was off fighting dragons somewhere else or hanging out with other ghostly friends, or he was sleeping. Did ghosts even need sleep? How was Peter to know? There were so many questions he wanted to ask him, but the ghost probably didn’t want anyone to bother him. 

Peter sighed, it was probably best anyway if he didn’t ask anyway. 

“For crying out loud,” Michele pushed Peter away from his desk and took his phone, “I’ll do it if you won’t.”

Peter scrambled forward, he couldn't let MJ talk to Phantom! He didn’t want to bother the important ghost. Ned raced in front of him and tackled him to the floor and began tickling him under the armpit. Peter giggled, he couldn’t help it. Ned rendered him useless with the persistent tickling as MJ calmly slid into his chat with Phantom.

“N-No” Peter laughed, “H-he is prob-probably busy!”

“Done,” MJ smirked and threw his phone back at him and Peter easily caught it and pushed Ned off of him.

He stared at his phone. MJ did it. She texted Phantom, short and sweet,  _ Wanna hang out? _

Peter's heart dropped, every second seemed like an eternity as he waited for a response. He knew that it was not going to happen. Why would some super cool ghost want to hang out with a small-time superhero dressed up as a spider? He was totally busy doing better things, right? It made no sense for the ghost to want to hang out with him. Phantom was probably going to ghost him. 

The pun did nothing to alleviate his impending embarrassment from being ignored by the ghost.

_ Ding. _

Peter’s eyes widened. That was his phone. His phone was the one to go off. He shook his head. It was probably May telling him to clean up before patrol or even Happy telling him to not send a thousand messages to him later, or maybe it was Mr. Stark. 

He unlocked the brick in his hand and brought it close to his face, his mouth hanging open at the sight.

“Sooo,” Ned coked his head, “Was it him or not?”

Peter tore his gaze to look at his friend, too shocked to make a response and his phone went off again pulling his attention back to it.

_ I am  _ soooo _ bored, there are only so many times you can break out of the GZ prison before it isn’t fun anymore. If you aren’t busy webbing someone up I’d love to hang out. _

Peter turned back to his friends, “He wants to hang out,” Excitement began bubbling inside of him, “Like...right now!”

Michele pointed to the window, “Okay, then what are you waiting for Parker, go.”

Ned nodded with the girl and Peter sent a quick text back with a place to meet. He jumped off the floor and raced to his closet to put his suit on not even caring if his friends saw him in only his boxers. He was too excited to care. The ghost actually wanted to hang out with him! He was going to go hang out with a super cool and funny ghost.

Peter was hanging out of his window halfway before turning back and frowning through the mask, “Wait, you guys came over to hang out, I shouldn’t leave.”

“Dude,” Ned cut him off, “Go. You deserve to have some cool super friends that aren’t double your age. Just I want to know all the details and you better come back with some super cool stories.”

“Yeah, and tell me what he smells like.”

Peter's smile fell and he turned to MJ, “...What?”

Ned turned to MJ to looking horrified, but none of the glances bothered the morbid girl. Instead, she shrugged, “What? I wanna know if he smells like a decaying corpse, that's totally a valid question.”

Peter laughed the girl off and jumped out of the window. Ned turned to Michele and the two shared their own laugh.

Michele sighed, “And here I always thought I would be the necrophiliac of the group.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter sat crouched on the top of the Empire State building. He had assumed since Phantom and he had fought the dragon here that it would be easier for the ghost to remember and he wouldn't get lost. Peter tried not to think about how the time seemed to pass and the ghost had yet to show up. It was a big city, after all, maybe he didn’t remember where exactly the building was or maybe something came up and he had to help someone.

“Hey.”

Peter nearly jumped out of his skin from the sudden appearance of bright green eyes in front of his and he went backward. A cold hand grasped his wrist to keep him from falling to his death. Phantom pulled him forward back to his perch and let go as he floated in front of him. Peter took a deep breath to calm his heartbeat which threatened to jump out of his chest. 

“Sorry,” Phantom rubbed the back of his neck, “Wasn’t trying to scare you.”

“It’s fine,” Peter squeaked, then cleared his throat to be deeper, “All good.”

Phantom gave a little huff and looked everywhere around but him. That was fine for Peter, it gave him another moment to adjust on his perch and sneak glances at the ghost. His black eyebrows furrowed together and his hands nervously twitched. Peter could have laughed. Here he thought he would be the only one nervous, but it seemed like Phantom was more nervous than he even was.

Phantom met his gaze and the two spoke at the same time, “What do you wanna do?”

They both chuckled and spoke simultaneously again, “Sorry.”

“Alright, you go first.”

Peter covered his masked mouth with a hand and nodded towards Phantom. The ghost chuckled, “So, umm what do you wanna do. I don’t really know these parks…”

Peter sighed, the ghost's voice calmed him down. It was steady and confident despite the obvious nerves he was showing. He shook his head. That was wrong, he was dead and Peter was alive. Nothing could ever work out like that...and besides, he was going to ask MJ out for prom this year. 

“Well,” Peter cleared his throat, “I usually go on patrol around this time so maybe we could swing around and see if anything is going down in my neighborhood.”

_ Stupid. Why would you ask that! Phantom came out here to hand out, not hold your hand as you fight real people. Stupid, stupid, stupid… _

“Sounds great,” All the previous nerves left as Phantom took on a more leisurely pose as he floated on his stomach, “Where do we start Spider-Man!”

The boy sighed, “Well, I heard there is a sweet Deli in Queens we could stop some petty thieves and pick up some sandwiches on the way.”

Phantom grinned, and at that moment, Peter knew he was screwed.

“Sounds awesome, race ya!”

Peter waited a moment to watch the ghost fly off at incredible speeds, there was no way he could beat him there, but at least he knew that Phantom was going in the completely wrong direction. 

* * *

“Aww, come on!” Phantom rolled over in front of Peter as he swung his legs off of a building, “I totally would have beaten you if I had some super cool AI telling me where to go.”

Peter chuckled as he continued to eat his sandwich. Delmars was as good as ever and the shocked look from the owner seeing Spider-Man and a ghost casually looking around made it even better. 

There wasn’t a lot of activity through the night, the most Peter had done was stop a bike thief and watch as Phantom saved some cats from a tree. (Peter would never admit to it out loud, but watching Phantom delicately pull three cats out of a tree with a dumb smile on his face made his heart flutter in a way he didn’t even know was possible.) 

So that left the pair sitting on top of an abandoned building watching the sunset and ships port the dock while eating sub sandwiches. It was relaxing. In the beginning, it was a little awkward, but Peter found it easy to talk to the ghost. Phantom was more than willing to offer his own quips and puns as the two soared between buildings and stopped to wave at patrons.

“Yeah, well you can fly super fast though,” Peter crumbled the wrapper and pulled his mask back down to his chin, “You could have asked for directions or you could’ve used your phone.”

Phantom groaned, “But that’s cheating.”

Peter sighed and turned back to the sunset, already some stars were peaking out in the distance. It was going to be a nice clear spring night. The stars should be extremely visible.

Thinking of the stars reminded Peter of the video he saw of Phantom on Twitter. The one where he was helping a group of kids with their astrology homework. He named every constellation they showed him with ease. The boy wondered how he knew so much. If he was really as old as the more stated, then he must have been around when people first started naming them, and what if he actually named some himself or gave suggestions. Maybe he studied them, but why? It seemed like a trivial thing to know. Stars. Out of everything the ghost could find an interest in, why something so seemingly normal?

“Hey, Phantom?” Peter turned to the ghost as he sat down beside him.

Without turning away from the night sky, Phantom nodded in response.

The light glow from the sky illuminated his face making it seem to glow. It was like he was his own star shining bright in the moonlight like a beacon. His eyes twinkled with a childlike wonder. It was sad, Phantom really did seem to enjoy watching the sky change from orange and pink hues to dark blue with twinkling stars. 

“Umm, how do you know so much about stars and stuff,” Peter twiddled his thumbs, “I remember seeing that video of you helping some kids with their homework about it and was wondering how you knew so much.”

Peter was expecting some light-hearted joke in return, but instead, he was met with a sad gaze. Phantom's green eyes lost their twinkle and it felt like someone had sucker-punched him.

Phantom sighed and turned back to the sky, “I dunno, I guess I’ve always wanted to go up there, ya know like in space.”

“And aren’t they amazing? Those big balls of gas look like little freckles in the sky. I wanted to see them up close and touch them when I was alive. I used to want to be an astronaut, pretty ridiculous now huh.”

Peter frowned, as the night continued on, he had forgotten the all-important fact that Phantom was dead. He seemed so full of life flying around with a smile on his face and twinkling eyes. But reality sunk in. Phantom was dead. He wasn't a living breathing human. He was just a soul bound to this world, he had dreams that he wasn't able to fulfill. It wasn’t fair, for someone so kind and good to have one thing they dreamed of doing taken away before given the chance.

Phantom turned back to Peter and smiled, yet it didn’t reach his eyes, “I guess you could say it was just a  _ phase _ .”

The boy huffed, the pun did not land due to the somber mood. Phantom seemed to realize it too and sighed taking his attention back to the stars.

“So like...how old are you?” Peter fumbled as he rambled on, “I mean, if you wanted to be an astronaut then you couldn't have been alive as long as what history dates you back as, which is kinda boggling my mind along with about ten thousand other things but...”

Peter immediately regretted seeing Phantom’s face fall. He was just about to take it back and curse himself for making the mood even more depressing, but Phantom cut him off.

“Three years,” Phantom turned back towards Peter making him feel small, “Please, no more questions about it.”

“Yeah, yeah dude, that's...okay.” Peter nodded, he hated seeing that haunted look in Phantom’s eyes. He looked so human and acted just like one. He had so many more questions pushing his mind begging for answers, but Peter hushed them, He had pushed enough for one night.

Phantoms’ phone rang and he pulled it out. Peter leaned to see who was calling and had to calm his nerves when he saw Tony Stark's name go across the screen. The ghost made no indication of sensing his nerves and calmly put the phone to his ear, all previous sadness leaving as if it was never even there.

“Hey, Tony, what’s g- _ iron- _ on?” Phantom winked at Peter.

Peter flushed underneath the mask and turned away. How was it so easy for him to go from one extreme to another with a flip? It made him wonder if Phantom had feelings. Did ghosts have feelings? All he had to go off of was some half-baked websites and he had a feeling that over 95% of what was even on those sites was fake. 

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few, I was just hanging out with Spider-Man. Just showing me around since it looks like I’ll be here for a while.”

Phantom pocketed his phone and turned back to Peter, “Well, seems the boss wants to talk to me again, see ya later Spider-Man.”

Peter raised a hand, but Phantom was already gone, nothing more than a streak of black in the sky.

He should feel good. He got to hang out with a super cool hero and it seemed like they might even hang out more if he really was going to be staying in New York, but the sadness in Phantom’s eyes haunted him. He looked to be around his age, so maybe sixteen or maybe seventeen, and he confided in him that he had only been dead for three years. Phantom had died when he was still a little kid, Hell, even now he was a little kid like him. 

It was daunting, he imagined the multiple times where he could have died and it terrified him. He was a coward of death, the coldness and fear that overcame him was unbearable. Yet Phantom had died and conquered death and still helped others. The boy wondered to himself if he would do the same. If he were to die tonight, would he become a ghost and help others? Or would he turn into some of the other ghosts he had seen recently? Beings created for destruction and only running based on their own desires? 

His phone went off in his pocket, it was probably May complaining about him not being home yet. It was a school night after all and he still had his strict curfew of midnight during the week. He had gotten so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even realize the time was 11:55 and it was at best a ten-minute swing back to his apartment in Queens. Peter quickly sent a text back to his aunt and began the trip home with one thought running through his mind.

_ Phantom smelled like a freshly brewed cup of coffee. _


End file.
